Haegue Yang: Continuous Reenactments
HAM Helsinki Art Museum
24 November 2023 – 7 April 2024
Sonic Female Natives, 2023 (detail)
© Courtesy of the artist, Photo: Studio Haegue Yang
HAM Helsinki Art Museum presents internationally renowned artist Haegue Yang’s first solo exhibition in Finland. Known for her artistic practice that combines a variety of materials and methods, Yang references diverse sources ranging from socio-political narratives, scientific phenomena, and art histories to anthropological perspectives. Her formally rigorous composition of industrially manufactured objects often requires labour-intensive production for many of her sculptures and installations. All of these form recurring pairings of seemingly oppositional concepts, such as abstraction and figuration as well as the ready-made and craftsmanship.
Haegue Yang’s solo exhibition at HAM presents two major monumental sculptural ensembles, Handles (2019) and Warrior Believer Lover – Version Sonic (2023), in the main exhibition halls. Consisting of six sculptures that premiered at MoMA in New York in 2019, Handles not only physically occupies the floor of the exhibition space but also incorporates the wall and the air with their sound components, thus appearing as hybrid bodies, part-abstract, part-object. Warrior Believer Lover – Version Sonic is a re-enactment of Warrior Believer Lover from 2011. A multipart sculptural installation of 33 anthropomorphic light sculptures, Warrior Believer Lover was first presented at Kunsthaus Bregenz. The primary material of both sculptural ensembles are metallic bells, which are regarded today as one of the artist’s signature materials and release rattling sounds when activated.
HAEGUE YANG - Biography
Haegue Yang (b. 1971, Seoul) 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. Responding to the exhibition as a place, her works incorporate the architectural and contextual aspects of the exhibition space and various materials collected locally. Her sophisticated and nuanced treatment of materiality, combined with an elegant sense of space and atmosphere, contribute to her engaging and resonant installations.
Haegue 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 work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the following institutions: Pinacoteca de São Paulo (2023); SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2022); Tate St Ives (2020); MMCA, Seoul (2020); MoMA, New York (2019); The Bass, Miami Beach (2019); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2018); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016); Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul (2015); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2011); and the South Korea Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); among others.
The exhibition is realised in partnership between S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent, Belgium) and HAM Helsinki Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland).
The exhibition has been curated by HAM’s Head of Exhibitions Kati Kivinen and Curator Sanna Tuulikangas.
HAM - HELSINKI ART MUSEUM
Eteläinen Rautatiekatu 8, 00100 Helsinki
