Haegue Yang - compromised scholar under the unjust social system

Haegue Yang is currently acclaimed as one of the most influential contemporary artists in the international art scene. Yet, the content of her artwork is esoteric. Her story of group sex is understood and consumed by a small group of elites with high social standing. A masculine face, pasty skin, and lean physique of the artist are unlikely physical characteristics of a prostitute. Lacking any feminine sexual charms, the artist defies the stereotype of a prostitute. Likewise, her artwork doesn’t set forth physical beauty unique to women as merit. Instead, the artist won international honors for the compromise she had to accept as a scholar. Her multisensory installation, stimulating sense of sight, sound, and touch, traverses a wide range of media: from collage to performance. The artist appropriates existing concepts and domestic objects to communicate her story and perspective on the unjustifiable ritual of prostitution.

Topics

• A Successful Artist whose Past Is in Veil
• Prostitution: Power Struggle
• Evolving Motif – Sonic Sculptures
• Boxing Ballet, Handles and Sonic Domesticus
• Exhibition: O2 & H2O - The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
• Sol Lewitt Upside Down, The Intermediates, Mok Woo Workshop – 108 Wooden Spoons

A Successful Artist whose Past Is in Veil

Yang is not only a renowned contemporary artist but she is also taken seriously by the authorities of the art world. The contemporary art world and the mass media in Korea acknowledge and admires her studies and knowledge in humanities. Unlike some of the most successful and popular artists, she is directly interviewed by the authorities of the art world, including curators of commercial galleries, the Museum of Modern Art, and Art Basel. The mainstream news companies in Korea released articles promoting her exhibitions.
She received her BFA in sculpture from Seoul National University, the top-notch liberal art college in Korea. In 1999, she earned an MFA from the Städelschule, Frankfurt. The art school, reputed as one of the best art schools in Europe, is located in the origin of the Frankfurt school, a group of philosophers who left a lasting legacy of modern philosophy and aesthetics. Her educational background suggests that theoretical studies surpass that of technique.
Though news about the artist’s activities during the past few years (5-10) is prevalent online, the process of her emergence into the art world is hard to trace. Interested in the predispositions of the artist that led her to prostitution and clues about her sex partners, I researched the artist’s upbringing background, the transition from school to career, and connections. Online media show the current established state of the artist, remains elusive about her past in specific and private life. Commonly covered topics of the artist by professional media include descriptions of artworks in an exhibition, artistic practice, and accomplishments.

Prostitution: Power Struggle

Representation of the artist and the content of her artwork have a stark contrast. Her multidisciplinary practice incorporates grand topics of history, politics, traditional culture, and memory to depict her narrative about group sex.
Any clue about Yang’s sex partners is completely hidden online, unlike Meret Oppenheim, the first female Surrealist. Yet, visual and linguistic clues in exhibited artwork suggest that she likely had sex with the gatekeepers of the fine art world. Unlike commercial illustrators, who can sell their skills directly to those in need, artists in the fine art world can't sell their artwork directly to consumers. The fine art world is consist of several gates, guarded by authorities including galleries and museums. The artist unwillingly decided to engage in prostitution as the gatekeepers refused to open up their "gate" unless she had sex with them. Uninformed about the harsh truth of the fine art world, the powerless female artist had to compromise as it was the only way to afford her living.
Likewise, her artwork is devoid of any eroticism and sexual pleasure. Her work is comparatively more desolate and masculine than that of the rest of the artists who engaged in prostitution. The rest of the artists, blinded by promised glory and their beauty, are voluntarily involved in prostitution, so their artwork depicts sex as entertainment. Yet, Yang’s artwork addresses basic living necessities by reflecting on the agony of survival and proposing questions about the unfair system of modern society. Fortunately, her artwork is understood by a few elites of the high society, despite its availability to the mass.

Evolving Motif – Sonic Sculptures

Her collection of works consists of several recurring mediums and themes that appear in her artworks, known as a motif in the fine art world. The main motifs in her artworks are venetian blinds, sonic sculptures, a mural of schizophrenic collage, and traditional paper-cutting craft. The artist consistently modifies and evolves her motifs into better versions and showcases the outcomes to the consumers in her exhibitions.
The signature motif of the artist is a sonic sculpture. She usually creates four to six sonic sculptures per exhibition. A sonic sculpture, slightly larger than a human, consists of primitive geometry assembled into a figurative form, a surface covered with skins of bells, sturdy handles, and installed castors. The artist encourages the audience to “dance” with her artwork by holding its handles and gently moving it. When activated, the sculpture produces a delicate rattling sound.

close up of Sonic Sculptures covered with skins of bells

 A shamanistic rite and the ceremonial bell

Bells on the figurative sculpture have double meanings. Firstly, the bells allude to the ceremonial tool a shaman shakes during a shamanistic rite. In a Korean shamanistic rite, a shaman dances, sings, and prays to gods in front of a table of offerings while participants of the rite watch the performance.
As a shaman dances and rattles the ceremonial bells, the sound of the bells fuses with dance, leading the audience to a more elevated spiritual state. The setting of the ritual is similar to that of group sex, where one female sexually bonds and entertains several partners. By comparing group sex as irrational and pagan shamanistic rites, the artist proposes a question about an unjust social system. She views the ritual of prostitution in the fine art world as a significant social issue.
Secondly, the bells are evocative of the artist having group sex. The skin of bells of a sonic sculpture suggests that the body of the artist is highly sensitive to touches. Hypersensitivity of senses is a common characteristic of people who have brains of superior intelligence. They possess the ability to detect subtle stimuli. Yet, the artist’s portrayal of group sex is mechanical rather than ecstatic. She compares the sculptures to machines, which merely copy existing movements.

Boxing Ballet (2013-2015)

Installation view at Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany, 2014

Triadic Ballet, 1922

The artist created the first collection of sonic sculptures in 2013. The artwork consists of six movable sculptures, with two of the works installed hanging from the ceiling and the other four standing on casters. The artwork shows evident influence from European avant-garde. Inspired by the costumes and movements of dancers of Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet (1922) from the Bauhaus movement, she created her own geometrical and anthropomorphic sculptures. Particularly intrigued by geometric costumes that constrict the movement in the Ballet, she came up with the idea of "boxing" the body. Boxing implies imposing a limit as if stuffing a thick blanket into a box. The forms of her figurative sculptures are derived from the costumes from the Ballet. The imitation reflects her commentary about how the unfair system of society oppresses women by imposing physical and mental limits.

Handles (2019)

 Handles, 2019, Installation view, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Handles, 2019, Installation view, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art, the artist installed a mystic and multisensory environment featuring six sonic sculptures, murals with geometric patterns and embedded handles, and ambient birdsong at the museum’s Marron Atrium.
Formerly complex and elaborate in design, sonic sculptures evolved into more orderly forms in the next version. Among the six sculptures, three of them are especially evocative of human figures, with their limbs extending from their body. Despite the evolution, the postures of the sculptures regressed into a more primitive state. The sculpture stands with four limbs, instead of two legs.
Speculating from the title of the artwork, the academic background and artistic practice of the artist, and the history of America, the work depicts the humiliation of a powerless scholar. The educational background of the artist suggests that she values theoretical studies over manual skills. She outsources manual labor to technicians for bringing her ideas to life. In contrast, Americans take pride in their ancestor’s labor and industry for building up the whole nation. In other words, they are aware of the cultural significance of manual work and thus value “handles”. The posture of the sculptures, with their hands, fixed on the floor, implies the artist’s “handle” is not qualified for labor. The artwork shows the inevitable and brutal reason for the artist’s engagement in prostitution.
Handles, previously merely attached to sculptures, decorate the walls of the Atrium. Though the red handles are placed on different heights of the walls, they are located above the sculptures. Higher in terms of level, the red handles represent the working capacity of the sex partners of the artist, who are powerful gatekeepers of the fine art world.

Sonic Domesticus (2020)

Sonic Domesticus, 2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

Sonic Domesticus, 2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul. 

The artist created a new collection of sonic sculptures for O2 & H2O exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. The anthropomorphized forms of the modified version are derived from four ordinary household objects: scissors, hairdryers, pots, and tongs. The domestic objects are enlarged and modified to constitute figurative forms. The second sculpture is especially evocative of a lying woman with her legs spread apart. These objects, once functional, lost their capacity after the assembly. The objects losing their function have a similar context with the sonic sculptures in Handles standing with four limbs.
The most interesting improvement of the new version is conveying the sense of temperature. The shaggy straws attached to sculptures are the added material that evokes sense of warmth.

Exhibition: O2 & H2O - The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

A tour of O2 & H2O

Yang had a solo exhibition at The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Seoul. As the title of the exhibition suggest, the artist discusses the problems that are essential to survival. To sustain their own lives, people have to work and earn money. In the exhibition, the artist demonstrates compromise she had to accept for living and basic agony followed by her living.

Sol Lewitt Upside Down

 Sol Lewitt Upside Down, 2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

The artist created her interpretations of the cube-shaped original works of Sol Lewitt, a pioneer in Conceptualism. She rescaled structures of LeWittʼs artworks by scaling down Structure (1994) 3 times and expanding Open Modular Cube (1966) 21 times. Then she took the structures of the two artworks and replaced their sides with blinds.
Blinds imply indoor space, as their primary function is distinguishing indoor space and outdoor environment. The blinds, once closed, are opened, light penetrates in and the audience can see indoor happenings. The artwork is the most visceral in the exhibition, as it indicates sessions of the intercourses the artist had with her partners. Yet, the title of the artwork state that the installation art was expanded 21 times, so the number of sessions was likely exaggerated.
The artist intentionally states in the title that she flipped the structure of the original artwork of the Conceptualist. Conceptualism, an artistic movement that occurred in the 1960s in New York, U.S., insisted the idea of art matters more than materials, craftsmanship, and the final output. Through her artwork, the artist points out the two primary aspects of human activity: physical and mental. By flipping the original artwork upside down, she indicates that indoor activity is group sex, in which physical pleasure outweighs the mind.

The Intermediates

 The Intermediates, 2017-2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

The artwork is comprised of three parts: four floating groups of serpents, three black shaggy shields, and the Frosty Walking Compartmented Container (2018)

Serpents

 The Intermediates, 2017-2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.

Four groups of tentacles connected to their heads float in an exhibition hall. Titles of the artwork state that they are groups of serpents. As the groups have the unlikely appearance of a serpent, the reference is hard to identify unless stated. The tentacles are made out of shaggy artificial straws. The straw material, universally used in crafts of different folk cultures, establishes a connection with the tradition.

Sonic Ropes

 Sonic Ropes, 2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

 Sonic Ropes, 2022. Installation view at M+, HK.  

Among the floating groups of serpents, the largest and white group of serpents have ropes of bells attached to their tentacles. The ropes, namely Sonic Ropes, are an extension of the sonic sculpture motif. They allude to rescue ropes from the traditional Korean folk tale of Sister Sun and Brother Moon. In the tale, the siblings, chased by the tiger that devoured their mother, climb up to a tree and pray for salvation. A rope descends to save them and they eventually become celestial bodies. The artwork was also on display at M+ Museum, HK in 2022.
The groups of serpents indicate the artist had four groups of sex partners in total. The group members are "The Intermediates" who enable the artist to create and exhibit her artworks. Without them, she can't afford her living. The artwork reflects the harsh reality of the fine art world, where the gatekeepers would open up their gates only if the artist engages in prostitution. The rattled rope conjures up the miserable artist crying out for her salvation from the gatekeepers and sponsors.
The artist boldly eliminates the bodies of the group sex members and replaces them with serpents. The serpents are directly connected to a head to maximize the process of de-materializing the mind. Throughout O2 & H2O, she emphasizes that the mind, a psychic activity working outwards, lacks a body. The structure of the artwork indicates that the members had the joy of having sex with the intellect. Similarly, the audience sponsors the scholar's desperation of living, instead of consuming the physical beauty of the artist.

Shields

 The Intermediates, 2017-2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

Details of the shields

Shields, often used as blocking attacks, implies advantages the artist gained in return for having group sex with the gatekeepers. They became supportive acquaintances who backs her up.
Shields, made out of the same material as the serpents, incorporate traditional weaving techniques of folk culture. The artist compares the problematic ritual to folk culture by creating the artwork in straw material. Folk culture is often deemed as questionable and thus it is a subject to conquer and change by modern civilization. The artist appropriates traditional craft to propose questions about the depraved ritual of prostitution and social injustice.

Frosty Walking Compartmented Container

Frosty Walking Compartmented Container,
2018. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.

Positioned right below the white serpents, it represents the body of the artist during group sex. Shaggy tentacles inside the container confirm the conclusion of the exhibition is about group sex. The title of the artwork implies the "frosty" state of the artist after having sex with several partners.

Mok Woo Workshop – 108 Wooden Spoons

Mok Woo Workshop, Wooden Spoons, 2020.
Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

 Mok Woo Workshop, Wooden Spoons, 2020. Installation view at MMCA Seoul.  

A small exhibition by a carpenter Woohee Kim is on display within Yang's O2 & H2O. The small exhibition is the outcome of the collaboration between the artist and the carpenter. A total of 108 wooden spoons are displayed with texts depicting the stories behind the items. The number of spoons relates to 108 agonies in Buddhist principles, which teaches the method of gaining freedom from the agonies.
Originally a literary and also a member of Chamgeul: Masan–Changwon workers’ literary society, Kim carves wood to make his living. Similar to Kim, the artist, educated as a scholar, has to have group sex with gatekeepers to afford her living. By displaying the crafts of a carpenter whose case is similar to the artist, she reflects on the cause of 108 agonies: the inevitable problem of affording one’s living.

Thank you for finish reading the article. This article is the second case study on group sex prostitution in the art world. To view the complete list of cases, please direct to the linked article. 

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