Haegue Yang brings her 'Double Soul' exhibition to Denmark

Arts & Design

Published: 28 Mar. 2022, 17:19 Updated: 28 Mar. 2022, 19:04

Haegue Yang brings her 'Double Soul' exhibition to Denmark

The exhibition overview of Haegue Yang's ″Double Soul″ exhibition in Denmark. On the left is “Sonic Intermediate - Tripodal Shapeshifter after Ferlov Mancoba” and right is “Sonic Intermediate - Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke.″ The two pieces make up the duo work “Sonic Intermediates - Double Soul” (2021). [KUKJE GALLERY]

Haegue Yang, a world-famous Korean contemporary artist based in Berlin and Seoul, is expanding her artistic footprints internationally.

During a press event at the Kukje Gallery, central Seoul, last week, the 50-year-old artist revealed her current and upcoming exhibition plans for this year.

The National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) is holding Yang’s large-scale solo exhibition “Double Soul” until July 31. It is her first time exhibiting her works in the country, and some 50 artworks spanning from 1994 to as recent as this year will be on display.

Like its title, the exhibition aims to explore Yang’s preoccupations with duality or pairing. For example, Yang’s own personal cross-cultural experiences are intertwined in the concept as well, as she works alternatively in Seoul and Berlin.

Artist Haegue Yang [KUKJE GALLERY]

Yang has specially created the duo work “Sonic Intermediates – Double Soul” (2021), which consist of two sculptures: “Sonic Intermediate – Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke” and “Sonic Intermediate – Tripodal Shapeshifter after Ferlov Mancoba.” These were each influenced by Yang’s fascination for Greenlandic-Danish artist Pia Arke (1958-2007) and Danish artist Sonja Ferlov Mancoba (1911-1984).

Yang revealed that she resonated with them for their continued efforts in refusing to compromise art despite leading non-mainstream, relatively alienated lives.

Yang also said that she wanted to focus on the asymmetrical power relations between Denmark and Greenland in terms of Denmark’s colonization, which started in the 18th century and lasted for about 200 years, and the identity and cultural issues that have risen accordingly. Her works therefore heavily rely on the life of the Inuits.

″Yearning Melancholy Red″ (2008/2019) by Yang [KUKJE GALLERY]

A pair of kayak mittens on display at the National Museum of Denmark are a set of examples that shaped the sculpture “Sonic Intermediate – Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke,” as the mittens each have two pockets for the thumb, one on either side.

“The curator [at the museum] told me that when the Inuit people go hunting on their kayaks the mittens get wet easily, which is why they have additional thumb holes so the wearer can easily [flip it over and] change holes,” Yang said. “The mittens show the living patterns of the Inuit people and their existential meaning. They served as a motif for when I worked on my sculptures.”

Arke was known to have researched her entire life to trace the history of the Inuit people.

These kayak mittens became the backbone for “Sonic Intermediate – Six-Fingered Wayfarer after Arke” as the piece has ginormous hands that each have six fingers. The signature multi-legged sculptures of Ferlov Mancoba shaped “Sonic Intermediate – Tripodal Shapeshifter after Ferlov Mancoba” as well.

“Double Soul” continues until July 31.

Yang will participate in two upcoming group exhibitions: in San Francisco and in Stuttgart, Germany. At the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Yang will showcase her famous “Yearning Melancholy Red” (2008) installation piece made from blinds for the group exhibition “Shifting the Silence,” from April 7 to Sept. 5.

″Planetary Chain Signal Formation - Mesmerizing Mesh #31″ (2021) by Yang [HAEGUE YANG, KUKJE GALLERY]

“Mesmerizing Mesh,” a series of hanji (Korean traditional paper) collage artworks that were exhibited at Kukje Gallery last August, will be introduced in Europe twice this year: at the Barbara Wien gallery in Berlin in April and at the Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris in October. The pieces were inspired by Yang’s deep-rooted interest in shamanism.

“I’ve always found hanji and shamanism fascinating,” Yang said. “I plan on creating more works regarding these themes — to discover and tell more about their spiritual meanings.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]