Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three, 2015

Basel 2016
Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three

Kukje Gallery / Tina Kim Gallery

Installation
aluminum Venetian blinds, aluminum hanging structure, powder coating, steel wire, fluorescent tubes, cable; 3 towers
426.0 x 438.0 x 426.0 (cm)
167.7 x 172.4 x 167.7 (inch)
Haegue Yang’s expansive installation, titled Sol LeWitt Upside Down – Structure with Three Towers, Expanded 23 Times, Split in Three,consists of over 500 independent components made of Venetian blinds that together recreate one of LeWitt’s signature works from 1986 – connecting LeWitt’s work to her own attempts to be liberated from the urge to compose, and the way modular thinking leads towards proliferation. Magnifying its size 23 times and hanging it upside down, this is the first work in her Sol LeWitt Upside Down series. The installation at Unlimited is new: in previous incarnations it was suspended high in the air as one volume, and later split into three parts. Here the work rests on the floor. By lowering it to eye-level, the work physically occupies its site and suggests a freestanding sculpture. The blinds, forming intersecting planes, create layers and discrete groupings where the play of light and shadow depends on the angle of approach. Appearing at once opaque and then translucent, Sol LeWitt Upside Down creates an immersive environment that suggests familiarity but resists being perceived as a definitive object, a hallmark of Yang’s current work using Venetian blinds.