Capturing “the abstraction of reality,” MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang – O2 & H2O is an attempt at another artistic leap. For this exhibition, air and water, elements essential to life, are perceived through the lens of O2 and H2O, chemical symbols of human invention. The title O2 & H2O reflects the artist’s persistent interest in tracing sensorial experiences with the abstract language of art. It also resonates with Air and Water, a work produced by the artist in 2002 for an exhibition of the same title. O2 & H2O poses questions to contemplate in totality the world of scientific facts, the perceptual world including experiences and senses that venture beyond such facts, and the phenomenal world that is gradually pushed to the brink with the climate crisis and disasters.
Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, the first anthology on the artist in Korean, Air and Water: Writings on Haegue Yang 2001-2020, co-published by the MMCA and Hyunsil Publishing, will be released. The anthology features a selection of thirty-six writings in chronological order by international critics, academics, curators, journalists, and artists who have engaged with Yang’s career over the last two decades. Offering insight into her artistic development and trajectory, Air and Water will provide substantial material for its readers to appreciate her oeuvre in greater depth.
For more information please visit the MMCA website.
Above: Installation view of Haegue Yang, Umbra Creatures by Rockhole, 2017-2018, and Haegue Yang in collaboration with Studio Manuel Raeder, Multiple Mourning Room, 2012, at Arts Crafts, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria, 2019 Photo: © Universalmuseum Joanneum/N. Lackner