Monday, February 22, 2010

Haegue Yang

Yearning Melancholy Red

2008

Aluminum venetian blinds, mirrors,

moving spotlights, infrared heaters, fans,

drums, MIDI converter


When I walked into this installation I was instantly dumbfounded by it. I couldn’t think of anything but why is this considered art? All that came to my mind was that I felt like I was walking into a Menards to pick out blinds for my house with really bad lighting.

When you first walk into the space there were aluminum venetian blinds hanging in the center of the room in what seemed to me no particular rhyme, reason or order. Were they just hung there to be there? The way they were hung left only a little space around them all to walk along the wall or to go underneath them, how is the audience suppose to go about viewing this piece and walking around it.? The room only had red lights, some were moving spotlights with red bulbs and others were the infrared heaters, which left me feeling nauseated and irritated. Walking further into the room there was a drum set behind a separation wall and only the drum set was under a white light, the drum set was the only interactive thing about the installation and when people were banging on them it just made me want to rip my hair out.

The concept of art for arts sake has never sat right with me. The fact that there was no information about how to go about walking around this installation angered me. I understand that we are supposed to experience things in our own ways and feel our own feelings but if something is as off the wall as this installation I want to know how I am supposed to interact with it, I want to know what the artist was intending us to feel while viewing the art. This has always been my feeling about art and thats why I have a problem with modern art for the most part.

Haegue Yang baffles me. Born in 1971, she lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Her use of none traditional mediums are informed poetry, politics and human emotions. She represented the Republic of Korea in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. She has a very impressive list of shows that have featured her pieces in a wide variety of places and even after all of the research done about this artist and her works I still do not understand a thing about this piece but I understand how it is considered an installation piece.

Sources:

http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=4668

2 comments:

  1. I wish I could have a room like that in my future dwelling. God it was wonderful.

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  2. Agreed. I kept expecting to find some sort of understanding if I looked long enough and thought hard enough - especially since it was such a featured exhibit - but I still don't get it.

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