The world-renowned South Korean contemporary artist Haegue Yang’s (b. 1971) solo exhibition Double Soul will take place at the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) in Copenhagen from March 5 to July 31, 2022.
Haegue Yang, Photo by Cheongjin Keem. Courtesy of the SMK.
It is the artist’s first major exhibition held in Denmark, which will present about 50 artworks created between 1994 and 2021. One of the artworks included in the show is Silo of Silence—Clicked Core (2017), a 17-meter-tall cylindrical Venetian blinds installation, which has been exhibited in MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang―O₂ & H₂O at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA).
Manufactured Venetian blinds are one of the materials that Yang has been using for a long time. The blinds refer to duality, as they provide shade from the sun but also allow light to enter. In the exhibition, Yang will attempt to reveal the contradictions and double-sidedness of our society by utilizing manufactured items, such as Venetian blind, in her works.
Yang’s body of work is known for in-depth discourse that draws from her personal experiences, historical references, and other social and cultural contexts. By applying smell, sound, and light to everyday objects such as blinds, drying racks, and bells, Yang visualizes these discourses into abstract yet multi-sensorial experiences through her large-scale installations.
Haegue Yang, Silo of Silence – Clicked Core, 2017. Photo by Anders Sune Berg. Courtesy of the SMK.
Haegue Yang, based in Seoul and Berlin, has represented Korea at the 53rd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in 2009 and took part at dOCUMENTA 13 in Kassel in 2012.
She has held solo exhibitions at a number of notable art museums, including the Art Gallery of Ontario (Ontario, 2020), the MMCA (Seoul, 2020), the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) (New York, 2019), the Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2016), and the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing, 2015).
Her works are in the collection of the MoMA (New York), the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate Modern (London), and many others.
In 2018, Yang became the first Asian woman artist to receive the Wolfgang Hahn Prize and was recognized by South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism with the Republic of Korea Culture and Arts Award.
Installation view of Haegue Yang's 'Sonic Domesticus' (2020), Photo by Hong Cheol-gi, Courtesy of the MMCA.
SMK is the largest art museum in Denmark. It was originally founded as the royal collection but turned into a public art museum in the mid-1800s. The collection ranges from paintings and sculptures from the 1300s to contemporary art, with over 260,000 artworks in its current collection.
