Haegue Yang: O2 & H2O

The MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang - 02 & H20 was an exploration into the layered and complex relationships between scientific facts, human sensorial perception, and extreme phenomena such as the climate crisis and natural disasters. Yang’s fantastical presentation transcended time and space with groups of sculptures such as Sonic Domesticus and The Intermediates made of bells and synthetic weaving materials. These sculpture-beings existed somewhere between living organisms and machines, evoking both the familiarity and grotesqueness of folklore. Yang’s ten-meter-high sculpture Silo of Silence - Clicked Core was made of Venetian blinds, reflective of her interest in materiality and its potential for multiple readings and layers, while the two works titled Sol LeWitt Upside Down engaged Yang’s art historical relationships. Five Doing Un-Doing and DMZ Un-Do both touched on the artist’s interest in substance and symbols, energy and technology, climate and social polarization, disasters and national borders as these ideas collapsed upon each other in the works. Yang’s sound installation Genuine Cloning was created in collaboration with voice cloning start-up Neosapience as a means of inquiry into values such as identity, authenticity, and uniqueness, creating a hybrid exhibition that existed somewhere beyond immediate reality.

Haegue Yang (born in Seoul, Korea in 1971) is known for her eloquent and seductive abstract sculptural language that embodies her personal readings of historical figures and long-standing interest in migration, and notions of folklore and domesticity. Her diverse body of work includes wallpaper, paper collage, performative sculpture, and large-scale installations. Yang has exhibited in major exhibitions including the 16th Istanbul Biennial (2019); the 21st Biennial of Sydney (2018); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); the 12th Sharjah Biennial (2015); and 9th Taipei Biennial (2014); dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel (2012); and the 53rd Venice Biennial (2009) as the South Korean representative. Yang has had recent solo exhibitions at Tate St. Ives (2020); Kukje Gallery, Seoul (2019); The Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach (2019); South London Gallery (2019); Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (2018); and the Institute of Modern Art Brisbane (2018). In 2018, Yang became the first Asian female artist to receive the Wolfgang Hahn Prize. She is currently a professor of Fine Art at her alma mater, the Städelschule in Frankfurt.