Mesmerizing Mesh with Shrine
2023-
Enveloped Domestic Soul Channels – Mesmerizing Mesh #208
2023
Hanji, washi, origami paper on alu-dibond, framed
6 parts, 62 x 62 cm; 92 x 62 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Installation view of The Open World, Thailand Biennale 2023, Chiang Rai, Thailand, 2023
Photo: Studio Haegue Yang
Installation view of Kukje Gallery booth at Frieze New York 2024
Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano
Installation view of Haegue Yang: Flat Works, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, United States, 2024
Photo: Michael Tropea
Installation view of Haegue Yang: Leap Year, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2024
Photo: Mark Blower
Photo: Leo Garbutt
Installation view of Earth, Wind, and Fire: Visions of the Future from Asia, Art Week Tokyo FOCUS 2024, Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Photo: Kei Okano
Installation view of Haegue Yang: Leap Year, Kunsthal Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2025
Photo: Marco De Swart
Haegue Yang’s ongoing series Mesmerizing Mesh (since 2021) explores the artist’s longstanding interest in the relationship between spirit and matter as well as diverse mystical practices ranging from European paganism to Asian shamanism. In recent years, this interest has turned toward various paper cutting traditions and the sacred dimension of hanji , traditional Korean paper derived from the inner bark of the mulberry tree. Mesmerizing Mesh is loosely inspired by ritual paper props made of hanji used in purifying, healing, exorcizing, and cleansing rites. Typically folded before cutting, the props display strongly symmetrical motifs. For Yang, these paper objects speak to the human impulse to craft objects for intercessory purposes, using matter to access the spirit.
Mesmerizing Mesh reflects on how shamans and artists take “mystic leaps” out of earthly materiality. The mystic leaps appear to reach language, aesthetics, communication, value, and all that lies outside the material realm. Just as shamanistic paper props bridge the dimensions of the living world and beyond, Yang activates hanji by layering, folding, carving, and attaching, creating geometric and figurative compositions to take the leap from material to the dematerialized.
Exhibition history
Haegue Yang: Leap Year, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2025
Haegue Yang: Leap Year, Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2024
Haegue Yang: Flat Works, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA, 2024
The Open World, Thailand Biennale 2023, Chiang Rai, Thailand, 2023
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