ART REVIEW
The Mundane Becomes Abstract
Installation artist Haegue Yang, internationally active from her bases in Berlin and Seoul, interprets everyday household objects in varied ways. Her latest exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul highlights the ongoing expansion of her genre-defying boldness as she muses on new questions. Kim Min Reporter, The Dong-A Ilbo
1 © Sebastiano Pellion Di Persano / Courtesy of MMCA
H
aegue Yang explores the potential of mundane objects such as laundry racks, Venetian blinds and light bulbs as her motifs – and has been remarkably successful in doing so. In one of her seminal works, “Salim” (Korean for “homemaking”), presented at the Korean Pavilion for the 2009 Venice Biennale, she created a kitchen out of steel frames, fans and yarn. Yang’s multimedia installations typically consist of standard household objects that have been transformed for a variety of new possibilities, often set against digital wallpapers with graphic design. Disconnected images are interwoven in a complex way; critics say they find the high image density difficult to take in all at once. She responds that abstruseness characterizes her works. Her latest exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, “MMCA Hyundai 40
Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang – O2 & H2O” (September 29, 2020-February 28, 2021), is no exception. What first greets visitors is a huge piece, “Silo of Silence – Clicked Core.” With its inscrutable title, the 11-meter-high installation takes the form of a large mobile composed of Venetian blinds and lighting fixtures. Dark blue and black blinds revolve in their respective orbits. Visitors can freely appreciate the exhibit from afar and from underneath; the impressive size and colors moving in slow motion create enigmatic spatial experiences.
One Object, Varied Interpretations
The Venetian blinds used here are the same as those featured in Yang’s best-known work, the “Sol LeWitt Upside Down” series, which can be seen further inside the exhibition hall. Created out of white blinds, it has strong minimalist features, as can be inferred from the name of the American artist in the title. Regarding the Venetian blinds, Yang said that some
1. Haegue Yang poses at the inaugural Taipei Dangdai art fair, held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center in January 2019. 2. “Silo of Silence – Clicked Core.” 2017. Aluminum Venetian blinds, powder-coated aluminum and steel hanging structure, steel wire rope, revolving stage, LED tubes, cable. 1105 × 780 × 780 cm. KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin invites one artist every year to present a single artwork in the 20-meter-high Boiler House, a typical post-industrial site. This cylindrical, moving installation by Hague Yang was exhibited from September 2017 to May 2018.
KOREANA SPRING 2021
