Leap Year by Haegue Yang at the Hayward Gallery
Leap Year features installations, sculptures, and text by renowned Korean artist Haegue Yang. On display now at the Hayward Gallery.
Leap Year features installations, sculptures, and text by renowned Korean artist Haegue Yang. On display now at the Hayward Gallery.
Multi-Sensory Art: Haegue Yang’s Leap Year Installation at the Hayward Gallery
Step into a surreal, entrancing, and entirely unique sensory experience with the Leap Year exhibit by renowned Korean artist Haegue Yang.
Showing in London’s Hayward Gallery, the Leap Year exhibition is the first major retrospective of this intriguing, critically acclaimed and internationally recognised artist.
Yang creates her pieces using a wide range of media. The collection of her work at the Hayward Gallery features kinetic performative sculptures, paper collages, and massive multi-sensory installations.
A remarkably versatile artist, Yang has also produced works incorporating text, sound, video, and wallpaper.
The Leap Year retrospective contains more than 100 pieces from the last three decades. It is the first time a gallery has showcased such a large body of work from this enthralling and enigmatic artist.
Haegue Yang, Photo Zachary Balber, Coutesy The Bass Museum of Art.
Credit : Condé Nast Traveller
A collection of evocative, kinetic and immersive artworks
Leap Year showcases Haegue Yang’s interdisciplinary artistic practices. The exhibition is arranged into five different thematic zones. Three new major commissions are included in the exhibition as well as a variety of new artworks.
Some of the most important works Yang has produced to date are featured. This includes Yang’s Light Sculptures, Sonic Sculptures, The Intermediates, Dress Vehicles, and Mesmerizing Mesh. Leap Year also displays an installation which uses Venetian blinds to create a large-scale work.
The use of Venetian blinds is perhaps Yang’s most well-known medium and is now considered to be her signature. Entitled ‘Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun’ the piece is a new work where Venetian blinds are suspended at different heights and formations. As visitors enter, they are guided through the installation by the colours of the blinds, stage lights, and a musical score based on a composition by Isang Yun, a famous Korean composer and political dissident. This is an important new piece and embodies Yang’s keen sense of culture, history, and politics.
Yang’s installation commissioned by the Haus der Kunst in Munich
Credit : Photo Kukje Gallery via Joongang Ilbo
The Leap Year exhibition also has another new work ‘Sonic Droplets in Gradation – Water Veil’. This entrancing sculpture invites visitors to navigate through a curtain made of blue and silver bells, providing a truly immersive experience evoking both East Asian and Western artistic traditions.
Yang has worked using a variety of mediums, all of which feature in the Leap Year exhibition. The ‘Sadong 30’ project was one of her first sculptural installations works to use mulberry paper and is on show at the Hayward Gallery. The ‘Mesmerising Mesh’ series is also featured. These works are an ongoing series of collages using Hanji mulberry paper, graph, washi, and origami paper. Colourful and hypnotic, these works reflect Yang’s thoughtful explorations of spirituality and art.
Leap Year has other works where Yang has created sculptures and objects from yarn, pompoms, light bulbs, and bells. Visitors can enjoy a mesmerising, enchanting and beguiling multi-sensory experience as they explore the thought-proving artworks of one of the world’s leading contemporary artists.
Art making is like weaving a complex fabric, while exhibition making tailors it into something wearable. For this show, I sought to reveal the hidden dimensions of my practice, akin to a rare leap year.
Haegue Yang, Korean artist
Haegue Yang: Blending the ancient with the modern
Born in 1971 in Seoul, Haegue Yang is considered to be one of the most inspiring and creative artists of her generation. She creates thought-providing artworks inspired by history, culture, tradition, folklore, and politics. Her works reference East Asian artistic traditions as well as Western contemporary art.
Leap Year by Haegue Yang at the Hayward Gallery – exhibition details
The Leap Year retrospective was curated by Yung Ma who was assisted by Suzanna Petot and Charlotte Dos Santos. This exhibition is part of the Hayward Gallery’s ongoing mission to promote new artistic voices. The Hayward Gallery aims to showcase artists who cross cultural boundaries and create works that transform how we perceive and experience art.
The Leap Year Haegue Yang retrospective is being shown at the Hayward Gallery located on Belvedere Road in London, UK. The exhibition will run from 9 October 2024 to 5 January 2025. Organisers intend to take the Leap Year exhibition on tour throughout other venues across Europe in 2025.
Opening hours of the Hayward Gallery are from 10 am to 6 pm Tuesday to Friday, 10 am to 8 pm on Saturdays, and 10 am to 6 pm on Sundays. Please note the Haywood Gallery is closed on Mondays.
Tickets for the exhibition are available online or at the gallery and are priced at £19 for an adult ticket and £8 for children from 12 to 16. Entry is free for children under 12.
