While I can't resist the opportunity to drop a "Toy Story" quote on y’all, Do Ho Suh may be hinting at something a little more complex than childhood naivety in this wondrous sculpture. 

The sculpture itself may stand at an impressive 23 feet tall, but the sky really is the limit when it comes to all the potential interpretations as to what the heck this stunning yet haunting sculpture means. Do Ho Suh refuses to make things easy for us. There is no such thing as accepting something at face value for Suh, consequently his work is saturated with symbolism and deep intricate meaning that often leaves the average plebeian such as myself questioning one's mental fortitude. Then again, most people do not have the impressive resume of attending four top-notch universities as Suh does. He may be a fan of the melon scratchers due to his potential mental superiority over the average person, but that is surely not the only reason why his work often stops people in their tracks and makes them wonder “WTF?”. Suh has always had a fascination with individual psychological and spiritual identity, and that is not exactly something that someone can explain to you for it is the most personal thing out there. Trust me, my therapist has been trying to explain this one to me for years.

While that may seem like a bit of a copout telling you that you must place your own personal identity onto this piece, there are a few theories out there as to what this sculpture could symbolize. One could see it as a commentary on how we follow blindly the path that our ancestors have left behind. Others may identify the sculpture as a human spine and the title may imply the looming sense of doom that is the result of our blind destruction of this planet. Who knows, maybe this is as a simple as a classic case of karmic retribution and this dude seriously messed up and now the back breaking pain of his poor decisions are coming back to haunt him.

At the end of the day, I believe the real question Suh is gunning at is: what do you think?