Awareness Post on Haegue Yang

clvvdcloud
Nov 22, 2024
2 min read

Haegue Yang (양혜규) is a Korean artist (b. 1971) based in Seoul and Berlin. She is currently employed as vice-rector at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0mNI80UKwk

Sallim, 2009

Her sculptural work is primarily composed of found-object components, and is meant to reflect domestic settings or feelings of community. Sallim is an immersive sculpture intended to imitate her kitchen environment in Berlin. Some objects in the scene include Venetian blinds, a house fan, and a sink.

This piece is currently on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens

Her work also explores social commentary. This is a sculpture of a bird perched on some sort of artificial form. The bird is split along the waist, representing the disconnect between the two Koreas. The bird appears whole from the front, but from the side the staggered halves of

the body are visible. The bottom of the bird is hollowed, with the intention of it holding water for birds to sip on. The meaning was to highlight a possible point of contact between the two nations.

Bird on Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens

Symmetric Paper Collages - Mesmerizing Mesh

Haegue Yang's series of collages, called Mesmerizing Mesh, is what attracted me to her work in the first place. The collages consist of precisely cut panels of hanji paper, a fairly accessible type of paper native to Korea, laid on top of each other in these kaleidoscopic patterns. The intensity of the series wavers between subtle and over-the-top maximalism. Some of her more detailed, intricate pieces are so detailed that the file size had to be severely compressed to fit into the post.