Haegue Yang

Haegue Yang is a contemporary South Korean artist known for her diverse body of work, which includes installation art, sculptures, and mixed-media pieces. She has gained international recognition for her innovative creations that often blur the boundaries between art and everyday life.

Biography of Haegue Yang

Haegue Yang was born in 1971 in Seoul, South Korea and now lives and works both in Seoul and Berlin, Germany.

Yang earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Seoul National University before pursuing her Master of Fine Arts at Städelschule Frankfurt am Main in Germany, which she completed in 1999. She currently holds a position as a Fine Arts professor at Städelschule.

The artist made her debut in exhibitions outside of Städelschule at Frankfurt's rraum, an unconventional exhibition venue situated in the residence of Meike Behm and Peter Lütje. Her first solo exhibition occurred in 2000 at the gallery of Barbara Wien, a Berlin-based publisher and art dealer.

Some of her recent significant exhibitions comprise "Strange Attractors" at Tate St Ives in 2020, "The Cone of Concern" at MCAD Manila in 2020, "When The Year 2000 Comes" at Kukje Gallery in 2019, and "Tracing Movements" at South London Gallery in 2019.

Her art has been featured in various prestigious events, including the Biennale de Lyon (2015), Sharjah Biennial (2015), Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2015), West China Art Biennale (2012), dOCUMENTA Kassel (2012), Gwangju Biennale (2010), Venice Biennale (2009), Guangzhou Triennial (2008), and PRAGUEBIENNALE3 (2007).

She has received several awards, including the Republic of Korea Cultural and Art Award (Presidential Citation) in the Visual Arts Sector in 2018. Her artwork has been acquired by prestigious institutions such as The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum Ludwig.

Haegue Yang’s Art Style

Haegue Yang's art style is characterized by a unique blend of natural and industrially produced materials, resulting in multisensory settings infused with light, fragrance, and everyday objects. She places equal value on utilitarian items and meticulously handcrafted processes, frequently incorporating objects like lightbulbs, clothing racks, industrial fans, and blinds into her artworks. Among these, Venetian blinds hold a central place in her most renowned pieces, transforming gallery spaces by filtering light, segmenting areas, and prompting viewers to explore various vantage points to fully appreciate her creations.

Her expansive installation works, such as "Accommodating the Epic Dispersion—On the Non-cathartic Volume of Dispersion" (2012), defy a singular mode of comprehension, reshaping space through the interplay of light and color.

Yang's fascination with light is prominently evident in "Sadong 30" (2006), a work created within her grandmother's former residence in Incheon, which she considers her only site-specific creation. In this project, Yang reconnected the house's electrical supply to activate string lights, casting their radiance upon paper origami and the accumulated dirt and debris that had gathered in the abandoned space.

She draws inspiration from a diverse range of references, including her personal life, historical events, figures from history, themes of migration and diaspora, culture, cinema, and literature. These influences shape her installations, such as "Sadong 30" (2006), and ongoing performances like "The Malady of Death" (2010-ongoing).

Haegue Yang's projects

In December 2015, as part of Mobile M+: Live Art, Yang unveiled "The Malady of Death: Écrire et Lire." This event included a theatrical production of "The Malady of Death" at the Sunbeam Theatre in Hong Kong, along with the release of the novella's first Chinese translation. The performance spanned two evenings, with the premiere featuring the recitation of Duras' text by Hong Kong writer Hon Lai-chu. The staging incorporated elements such as a burning mosquito coil, dynamic lighting effects, and intermittent backdrop projections featuring the French actress Jeanne Balibar.

"Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens" (2020), Yang's commissioned artwork for the 2020-21 "Ground/work" exhibition at the Clark Art Institute, envisions an encounter between birds from New England and those from Korea's Demilitarized Zone. This conceptual artwork aims to draw connections between the ecological diversity of these two regions. Departing from Yang's customary indoor sculptures, typically crafted from found materials, the three installations dispersed throughout Clark's landscape consist of stone pedestals complemented by 3D-printed biocompatible birdbaths for the local wildlife.