Haegue Yang Survey Coming to London's Hayward Gallery

Haegue Yang b. 1971, South Korea Follow +

London‘s Hayward Gallery will host artist Haegue Yang‘s first U.K. survey this autumn. On view from 9 October to 5 January, Leap Year covers two decades of the Seoul and Berlin-based artist’s practice.

New commissions are on view alongside emblematic series such as the artist’s ‘Light Sculptures’, ‘Sonic Sculptures’, ‘The Intermediate’, ‘Mesmerizing Mesh’, and acclaimed Venetian blind installations.

Yang is well known for making sculptures and installations using domestic and industrial objects, such as clothing racks, light bulbs, or hay. Her work, ranging from collage to installation and theatre, often communicates via scale and sensory experiences to convey more conceptual concerns about humanity’s trajectory into modernity.

‘An artistic practice should be something actual, something to experience, not necessarily to understand. It should rather resist the conventional idea of possessing a common thread or summary in the sense of an understandable message,’ Yang told Ocula Magazine.

For the occasion, the artist re-configures a project conceived for her first exhibition in Korea in 2006, installed in her disused home in Incheon. Titled after its address, Sadong 30 scattered bright geometric forms and light garlands throughout the residence, reviving the disused space.

More recent investigations into matter and spirituality find expression in collages made with mulberry paper that reference sacred and ritualistic objects from shamanism and folk traditions.

‘Haegue Yang has consistently sought to expand our perception of what it means to be culturally fluid or socio-politically engaged artistically,’ says Hayward Gallery’s Senior Curator, Yung Ma.

‘For this survey show, I deliberately unfocused my eyes to obtain the hidden 3D vision of my own practice, which is a rare, perfect occurrence like a leap year,’ Yang said. —[O]

Main image: Haegue Yang, The Randing Intermediates – Underbelly Alienage Duo (2020). © Haegue Yang. Courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. Photo: At Maculangan.