Haegue Yang’s ambitious sculptural ensembles take centre stage at HAM’s exhibition halls

Dividing her time between Germany and Korea since the mid-1990s, Haegue Yang (Seoul, 1971) has been gathering inspiration from a wide range of social, historical, and cultural environments.  Her relentless curiosity has led to philosophical inquiries into diverse fields, including socio-political narratives, scientific phenomena, and anthropological perspectives, positioning her at the forefront of the contemporary art world today. 

Yang is renowned for her labour-intensive, yet unrestricted craft-based methods drawn from various folk traditions, melding arrays of organic and synthetic materials together with industrially manufactured items. Embracing fluidity and contradiction, Yang’s artistic approach transcends boundaries and sparks fresh perspectives. Combining rich materiality, conceptual complexity, and an abundance of visual references, her exhibitions create immersive sensory experiences in the language of visual abstraction. 

Haegue Yang sets a multisensory field of reenactments at HAM

For HAM, Yang builds an enthralling arena with performative and sonic elements to examine the concepts of recurrence and reenactment. Manifested through symmetric and asymmetric pairs, complementing duos, and interconnected groups of artworks, Yang investigates the ideas of doubling, mirroring, and reiterating, hereby pairing and juxtaposing seemingly oppositional notions such as abstraction and figuration, domesticity and public, revealing their inseparability.

At the heart of the exhibition, visitors will encounter two monumental sculptural ensembles: Handles (2019) and Warrior Believer Lover – Version Sonic (2023). Both sculptural ensembles prominently feature metallic bells, which emit resonating rattling sounds when set in motion and are now considered one of the artist’s signature materials.  Handles, which first premiered at MoMA in New York in 2019, is a multisensory installation comprising six sculptures with elements of wall objects and floor graphic adhesives, and an intricate soundscape. These sculptures are transformative, turning mundane objects into visually striking, movable artworks, and can be seen as hybrids, blurring the lines between human and technological beings. Warrior Believer Lover – Version Sonic is a reenactment of Warrior Believer Lover, Yang’s ambitious sculptural ensemble from 2011. While the predecessor consists of 33 anthropomorphic light sculptures, the new Version Sonic presents 21 sculptures covered with skins of bells and festooned with wigs, plastic plants, solar panels, and LED lights alongside authentic organic materials such as dried pinecones. Periodically, music by Isang Yun (1917–1995) and Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) will accompany Handles and Warrior Believer Lover – Version Sonic respectively, creating immersive sculptural symphonies. 

The exhibition is realised in partnership with S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium and is supported by the Finnish Heritage Agency. 

Biography

Haegue Yang (b. 1971, Seoul) currently lives and works between Berlin and Seoul. Spanning a vast range of media—from collages to performative sculptures and room-scaled installations—Yang’s work links disparate histories and traditions in a unique visual idiom. She is undoubtedly regarded as one of the most celebrated artists of our time yet remains elusive due to the diversity and complexity of her interests and methods of abstraction. The artist draws on a variety of craft techniques and materials, and the cultural connotations they carry: from drying racks to venetian blinds, hanji (traditional Korean mulberry paper) to artificial straw. Her multisensory environments activate our perception beyond the visual, creating immersive experiences that address issues such as labour, migration, and displacement from the oblique vantage of the aesthetic. Ensuring that her references remain wayward and personalised, Yang prizes fluidity over unified narratives.

Yang was the winner of the Wolfgang Hahn Prize from Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne in 2018 and the 13th Benesse Prize at the Singapore Biennale in 2022. Her solo exhibitions have been hosted at the following institutions: National Gallery of Australia (2023); S.M.A.K., Ghent (2023); Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2023); SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2022); Tate St Ives (2020); MoMA, New York (2019); The Bass, Miami Beach (2019); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2018); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Leeum, Seoul (2015); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2011); and the South Korea Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); among others.   

Yang’s wide-spanning exhibition activities will continue with her participation in the Thailand Biennale 2023 and Lahore Biennale next year. Hayward Gallery in London will host a major survey exhibition on Yang’s oeuvre in October 2024. Her work has been the subject of numerous essays and monographs and is included in public collections across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Haegue Yang: Continuous Reenactments 24 November 2023 – 7 April 2024 at HAM Helsinki Art Museum

Additional information

Activation of Handles

• Thursday 23 November 2023 at 6.30pm, 7.15pm, 8.15pm and 9pm
• Saturday 2 and 9 December 2023 at 2pm                                        
• Saturday 13 and 20 January 2024 at 2pm                                        
• Saturday 10 and 17 February 2024 at 3pm
• Saturday 2 and 16 March 2024 at 2pm
• Saturday 6 April 2024 at 2pm

 

Talks and lectures

• Talk by Karima Boudou with Kati Kivinen on Haegue Yang’s art, Friday 24 November 2023 at 6pm
• Lecture by Anders Krueger on Haegue Yang’s art, Friday 19 January 2024 at 6pm
• Lecture by Katve-Kaisa Kontturi on materials an materiality in Haegue Yang’s art,
  Friday 15 March 2024 at 6pm
• Talk by Haegue Yang on Continuous Reenactments, Saturday 6 April 2024 at 3pm

 

Screenings

• Haegue Yang: Video Trilogy, Friday 1 December 2023 at 11.30am-7pm
• Haegue Yang: Doubles and Halves – Events with Nameless Neighbors,
  Friday 22 March 2024 at 11.30am-7pm

Curators: Head of Exhibitions Kati Kivinen and Curator Sanna Tuulikangas, HAM Helsinki Art Museum