Haegue Yang

Haegue Yang (, Hanja: 梁慧圭; born December 12, 1971) is a South Korean artist primarily working in sculpture and installation. After receiving her B.F.A from Seoul National University in 1994, Yang received an M.A. from Städelschule where she now teaches as a professor of Fine Arts. She currently lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Yang's work often places disparate household objects, including yarn, light fixtures, and fans, into alternative configurations, exploring meanings they can take on outside of their typical functional uses. She is particularly well known for her installations incorporating venetian blinds that transform galleries through their filtering of light, segmentation of space, and large scale that requires audiences to find multiple viewpoints in order to see the work. Her installations using materials like bells, moving theater lights, and scent diffusers engage multiple senses by incorporating lights, smells, sounds, and tactile materials that reorient and recalibrate viewers' perception. Yang draws from a wide array of references, including her own biography, historical events, film, and literature, to create installations like Sadong 30 (2006) and performances like The Malady of Death (2010-ongoing). A number of her works consider movement both within the exhibition space with moving sculptures such as Dress Vehicles (2012), and on a global scale with outdoor commissions like Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens (2020). Yang is a particularly prolific contemporary artist–her 2018 catalogue raisonné, published in conjunction with her solo show "ETA" at Museum Ludwig, lists over 1,400 works. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Republic of Korea Cultural and Art Award (Presidential Citation) in the Visual Arts Sector in 2018. Her work has been collected by museums like The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in South Korea, Museum of Modern Art, and Museum Ludwig. Early life and education Yang was born in South Korea in 1971. Her father, Hansoo Yang (born 1945, Seoul), is a journalist and her mother, Misoon Kim (born 1945, Incheon), is a writer. Hansoo Yang worked for an international construction company after he was dismissed from his job at the Dong-A Ilbo along with 160 colleagues for protesting censorship under Park Chung-hee's regime. Both Hansoo Yang and Misoon Kim were active in the Minjung Movement.