La vie moderne, La Biennale de Lyon
September 10, 2015 - January 3, 2016
La Sucrière, Lyon, France
Photo © Blaise ADILON
Press release
Haegue Yang has designed a huge installation comprising over 500 venetian blinds. Although her earlier works were usually triggered by historical and political references, Haegue Yang sees this one as a new departure towards abstraction – a kind of shaking off of the strictures of composition, colours, structures and forms. Haegue Yang has taken inspiration from Sol LeWitt (1928-2007), one of the pioneers of conceptual art, for whom the working out of the artwork was more important than the work itself. Sol LeWitt conceived his works using geometrical units, repeated according to precise rules. He created one series of sculptures, for example, where the cubes that it was made up from were determined by a minimum number of edges. Haegue Yang’s installation makes direct reference to Sol LeWitt’s Structure with Three Towers (1986). In Haegue Yang’s piece the original work has been magnified 23 times, placed upside down and divided into three, while the edges of the cubes have been replaced by blinds placed horizontally. The blinds are superimposed on one another in horizontal layers and hung from the ceiling of the Sucrière, creating an interplay of light and shade that shifts and changes with the visitor’s point of view.
Exhibited work
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three, 2015