reviews HAEGUE YANG
Haegue Yang: remote room
BArBAr A WiEN, BErliN
27 April – 31 AUGUst
Haegue Yang’s work is often a contemplation of the conditions of stencilled on long sheets of paper, chance outcomes of the process by
a meandering, unstable existence. Her recent Series of Vulnerable which Yang spray-painted the origami objects that feature in her 2004
Arrangements (2006) at Utrecht’s BAK invited the viewer to follow the video Unfolding Places. The traces assume a life of their own as painterly
artist on subsequent journeys into the heart of other cities (in addition works in which 3-D objects are unfolded onto a single plane.
to Utrecht there are now Seoul, Cologne and Basel versions of Series of Quasi MB – in the middle of its story (2006–7) is the exhibition’s
Vulnerable Arrangements). She conveys her thoughts and impressions in centrepiece. Consisting of 18 framed panels that juxtapose typed and
videoworks, while simultaneously creating an installation environment handwritten sheets of paper, the installation is a heartfelt homage to the
that exposes visitors to the elements and climatic conditions of some two-minute film La Pluie (1969), by Marcel Broodthaers. In the original,
of the places she has visited. In Remote Room, at Barbara Wien, Yang Broodthaers is seen writing on a sheet of paper as a shower of water dissolves
shifts towards a more self-reflexive contemplation of the potentials and his words. Adopting a variety of narrative voices and perspectives, Yang’s
conditions of artistic endeavours. Yet her longstanding concerns are still typed texts occasionally mirror the barely legible words of their washed-
here in the abiding interest in systems we inscribe in our environment as we out handwritten counterparts. They reflect on her intention to reconstruct
attempt to structure and understand the world. Broodthaers’s project, even including texts that are signed ‘M.B.’, as if
In DIN A4 / DIN A3 / DIN A2 Whatever Being (2007), an array of penned by the late artist himself. These different registers of authorship
sloped white rectangles sits discreetly on the wall. As the title suggests, and identity are interwoven with references to Yang’s nomadic existence as
these forms owe their dimensions to standard German paper sizes. Here an artist, resulting in an installation that amounts to a sort of travel diary.
Yang highlights an instance of the many industrial norms governing our For the first time, Haegue Yang introduces references to the work of
daily lives. At the same time this is a meditation on the medium of paper another artist as a vehicle for an analysis of the places that she emotionally,
at the core of the exhibition. Continuing Yang’s ongoing investment in a intellectually and physically inhabits. Perhaps she has finally found a place
practice that shuttles between two-and three-dimensional disciplines, this for her practice to feel at home. Her reflections on Broodthaers’s sceptical
work transforms the flat surface of paper into a sculptural object. approach to language, art and its institutions adds a critical dimension to
The direction of this operation is reversed in Non-Foldings (2007), her practice while at the same time celebrating its idiosyncratic tone.
a galaxy of black-and-white geometrical silhouettes of origami sculptures Astrid Mania
Non-Foldings, 2007, white or black lacquer spray paint on black or white paper, dimensions variable. Courtesy Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin
Artreview 132
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