After receiving her
B.F.A., Yang moved to
Germany and began her artistic career in the late 1990s. Yang participated in her first show outside of
Städelschule at Frankfurt's rraum, an alternative exhibition space in the apartment of Meike Behm and Peter Lütje. Yang is currently based in
Berlin and
Seoul. Her main studio is located in
Kreuzberg, Germany. She has been a professor of Fine Arts at the
Städelschule since 2017. Her extensive oeuvre includes
sculpture,
installation,
collage,
photography,
video, and
performance. Curator and art critic
Nicholas Bourriaud argues that in spite of the diversity of techniques and mediums, Yang's work is ultimately sculptural in its dealing with the fundamental question of the presence of the body in space. Her sculptures often feature household objects and mundane materials. The objects range from drying racks, lightbulbs, yarn, electrical cables, and
Venetian blinds. Yang attributes part of her interest in domestic objects to her upbringing in
Korea during the 70s and 80s. Yang sometimes pairs these objects with additional sensorial components, such as steam from a humidifier, temperature changes using a heater and air conditioner, and diffused smells in iterations of her "Series of Vulnerable Arrangements" (2006-8). Yang argues that for her practice,
abstraction does not negate the possibility for narrative in her work, but instead "allows a narrative to be achieved without constituting its own limits."
Art historian Joan Kee contends that Yang's interest in
formalism "is marked by a sustained attention to morphology, to structure." When responding to questions around the role of
feminism in her work, Yang argues that while sculptures like
Sallim (shown at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009) can engage with issues around gender in references to housework, they have multiple valences that can extend into religion, immigration, and class.
Light and visibility Venetian blinds Yang began using Venetian blinds in her work in 2006 for a show at BAK,
Utrecht. Her large-scale installation works such as
Accommodating the Epic Dispersion--On Non-cathartic Volume of Dispersion (2012) refuse a single point of apprehension, transforming space in conjunction with light and color. Yang's interest in light as a sculptural medium stems from its ability to claim physical space as a distinct, and sometimes even anthropomorphic, object. Within one of her sculptural installations
Mountains of Encounter (2008), moving spotlights are even utilized to imitate "the effect of searchlights" and alternate the "projection of shadows." Light plays an integral role in
Sadong 30 (2006), a work made at Yang's grandmother's former home in
Incheon which the artist describes as her only site-specific piece.
Historical and biographical references Particular works of Yang's invoke meetings of historical figures, such as the Venetian blinds in
Red Broken Mountainous Labyrinth (2008) which refer to Korean independence fighter Kim San (1905-1938) and American journalist
Nym Wales (Helen Foster Snow, 1907–1997), and consideration of the parallels between seemingly disparate figures spanning multiple geographies and times. Her work exploring this "area of productive fiction" allows her to consider the connections between public and private life.
The Malady of Death (2010 - ongoing) Beginning in 2010 during her residency at the
Walker Art Center in
Minneapolis in the
United States, Yang has staged a series of readings of the French writer
Marguerite Duras' 1982 novella
The Malady of Death. The language, performers, and visual components of each reading have varied. In December 2015, as part of
Mobile M+: Live Art, Yang presented
The Malady of Death: Écrire et Lire, which consisted of a staging of
The Malady of Death at Hong Kong's
Sunbeam Theatre and the publication of the novella's first Chinese translation. Held over two nights, the opening performance saw
Hong Kong writer
Hon Lai-chu recite Duras' text. The staging included a burning mosquito coil, moving lights, and intermittent background projections of an image of the
French actress Jeanne Balibar. To date,
The Malady of Death has been performed at the
Walker Art Center,
Minneapolis (2010); Namsan Arts Center,
Seoul (2010);
dOCUMENTA (13),
Kassel, (2013); and Mobile M+: Live Art,
Hong Kong (2015),
Performa (2023).
Movement and migration Some of Yang's sculptures center around the theme of movement, either by using materials commonly understood to be mobile (e.g. moving theater lights in her venetian blind pieces)
"The Art and Technique of Folding the Land" (2011) The title of Yang's solo exhibition at the
Aspen Art Museum refers to ideas present in both
Daoism and Western folklore of traveling large distances with each step.
"Sonic Figures" (2013-ongoing) Inspired by
Oskar Schlemmer’s
Triadisches Ballet from 1922, "Sonic Figures" is a series of intricate sculptures made of numerous brass-plated bells affixed to wheeled steel stands. Performers rotate the pieces using handles in order to make the bells ring.
M+ both commissioned and later acquired her piece
Sonic Rescue Ropes.
Commissions An Opaque Wind (2015) This outdoor commission for the twelfth
Sharjah Biennial took shape partially due to Yang's personal interest in the
United Arab Emirates and the historical implications of Korean workers in the country. Yang's father worked in
Libya,
Liberia, and other countries in
Africa and the
Middle East as part of the
Jungdong (Middle East) boom that brought more than one million South Korean workers to the Gulf region. For the outdoor portion of the work, Yang brought together vent sculptures on brick and concrete block pedestals with a sandalwood vestibule, satellite dish, and walls made of steel tubes and corrugated metal sheets. The indoor part of the installation titled ''Fathers' Room'' featured a spare room with palm mats, a mattress topper, a lamp, and community newspapers. '''
Lingering Nous (2016)'''
Lingering Nous (2016) is a large-scale commissioned blind installation at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France. Featuring aluminum venetian blinds and LED tubes, the hanging structure stretches three levels of the institution. As the word Nous refers to the human mind and "understanding what is true or real," the installation entitles "the potential to explore this capacity of the human world further."
Migratory DMZ Birds on Asymmetric Lens (2020) Yang's commissioned work for the 2020-21 "Ground/work" exhibition at the
Clark Art Institute imagines a meeting between birds of
New England and Korea's
Demilitarized Zone in order to draw parallels between the ecological diversity of the two regions. Unlike Yang's past sculptures, which typically are shown indoors and made of found materials, the three sculptures scattered around the Clark's grounds are composed of stone pedestals with 3D-printed biocompatible birdbaths for the animals in the area. The birdbaths are also a reference to the sound of birds audible on the broadcast of the April 2018
inter-Korean summit. == Other activities ==