Haegue Yang: The Art and Technique of Folding the Land

Internationally renowned artist Haegue Yang creates installations that include photographic, video, and sculptural elements, and are informed by the artist’s philosophical and political investigations. Responding to the places where she exhibits, Yang creates site-specific new work that incorporates both the architecture of the exhibition space and materials gathered from the region. Her highly refined and yet completely particular sense of materiality, combined with an elegant sense of space and atmosphere, contribute to her enveloping and resonant installations.

Part of Yang’s appeal is the playful, highly attuned sensibility she brings to her selection of objects. Everything from mini-blinds to brightly colored extension cords are fair game for inclusion, yet her installations have a striking formal focus and clarity. For her exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum, Yang began by gathering clothing display racks as well as mountain river driftwood to use as armatures for a series of light sculptures. The wood, pinecones, and other natural materials she collected marked a new aspect of her work, one she developed while working in Aspen as the Jane and Marc Nathanson Distinguished Artist in Residence. The Aspen Art Museum exhibition of Yang’s work was accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue copublished with the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, which staged a concurrent exhibition of Yang’s work in the summer of 2011.