🎨 Home is a tapestry of colorful memories

This was at the Tate Modern, visiting the exhibition “Do Ho Suh: Walk the House” 🏠 by the Korean artist Do Ho Suh.

The artist, who has lived in Seoul, New York, and London, explores the interconnectedness of home, space, architecture, and memory throughout the exhibition.

As someone who’s lived abroad, I’m sure many of us can relate deeply to the experience of moving and searching for a place to stay.Personally, I’ve moved five times in the past five years. Every time I leave, I feel a pang of reluctance, as if I’m saying goodbye to a dear friend—my little room. There’s always a sense of gratitude and nostalgia for the memories that took root in each space.

For me, "home" has gradually grown beyond the foundational memories shaped in my hometown of Kunming. Even the way I describe my current place in the UK to my parents has changed—from saying “back to the dorm” to simply “back home” 🔜.

🏠 I once came across a definition of home that really struck a chord with me: Home is where you feel truly safe, comfortable, and full of energy.

As I’ve grown, I’ve shifted from relying on my parents for this sense of security to learning how to create that sense of certainty for myself ✅.

I used to love collecting souvenirs wherever I went, bringing them back to decorate my little space. It was almost instinctual—wanting to fill the foreign space with tangible traces of my experiences, as if to root myself. But now, with a stronger sense of confidence and belonging, I realise that impulse may have stemmed from a kind of quiet anxiety—an uncertainty about where I truly belong, where “home” really is. So I filled my space with things connected to me, as if surrounding myself with the past could help comfort and accompany the “me” living each day in this unfamiliar place.

This exhibition brought all of that back to me, prompting me to reflect 🤔 on what “home” means to me, and how I might better build my own dream home.

I especially loved the video installation at the far end of the gallery, where the artist imagined the midpoint between his three homes (somewhere in the ocean!) as his dream home. He introduced the idea of bridges linking all three places, constructing a home from the connections between them. There was even a Ferris wheel 🎡, made up of the small shops he frequented near each home—cosy cafés, steamy breakfast joints…

Maybe a dream home is just that—not disconnected from one’s memories, but built from the familiar people, places, and routines that provide comfort and certainty.

In that way, home is something we carry with us .The past and our memories, like sheer fabric, layer and intertwine, moving, evolving, and enduring with each of our steps. 👣