The shamanistic sculptures of Haegue Yang: Viewed 31 August 2023

Yang, Haegue. 2020. Sonic Intermediates – Three Differential Equations: Sonic Intermediate-Parameters and Unknowns After Hepworth 2020/After Gabo 2020/After Li 2020. Sculptures. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Hague Yan's three sculptures that comprise Sonic Intermediates - Three Differential Equations, 2023.

Positioned off-centre in a large hall clad with another work by Yang (Non-Linear and Non-Periodic Dynamics 2020), in a mimetic world created by the artist, these three shamanistic (Thompson 2023) sculptures pay homage to artists Haegue Yang admires, being Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Li Yuan-chia.

Yang has abstracted the essence of their artistic practice and migratory life stories to create sculptural portraits for each, using iconic identifiers as signs of identity (for example a hole for Hepworth, a ceiling vent for Gabo and a broom for Li). I would not have realised the purpose of these icons without the benefit of the exhibition catalogue.

I had understood that these sculptures would be activated and had assumed that audience participation would be encouraged. However in my visit to Yang’s exhibition Changing From From to From on Thursday 31 August I was told by gallery staff that the activation was scheduled for Saturdays only, and I was repeatedly chided for getting too close to the sculptures. This was not the type of audience engagement I had envisaged.

The sculptures are composites of percept and affect (Hickey-Moody 2013, 85-86). The percept is their physical presentation as human sized, anthropomorphic forms, due to the suggestion of heads, arms and bodies. However the affect of their construction from synthetic materials was one of surprise and disappointment. The sculptures were clad in a multitude of small ritualistic bells and plastic twine, as an intentional replacement for traditional materials such as straw (Thompson 2023). In a form of reverse indexicality, I had expected shamanistic materials to be more natural and organic.

My learnings from these works are to consider the percept and affect of artworks, from the materials used, as well as to be mindful of artificially constraining the performative aspect of works, if in fact they have been designed to be interactive.

Bibliography:

• Hickey-Moody, Anna. 2013. "Chapter 4 Affect as Method: Feelings, Aesthetics ad Affective Pedagogy." In Deleuze and research methodologies edited by Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose, 79-95. Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, United Kingdom).

• Thompson, Russell Storrer and Beatrice. 2023. Haegue Yang: Changing From From to From Parkes, ACT.: National Gallery of Australia.

What are they saying? Tala Madani's work at Thin Skin: Viewed 30 August 2023

Madani, Tala. 2017. Lights in the Living Room. Painting, oil on canvas. Monash University Museum of Art, Victoria, Australia.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Tala Madani's Lights in the Living Room, 2023.

Viewed on 30 August 2023, this slightly absurdist figurative work is my favourite from the thirty plus works in the exhibition Thin Skin at the Monash University Museum of Art. Its muted grey, green and yellow palette appeals aesthetically, while its whimsical nature intrigues me. At 35 by 41 cm, its relatively small size meant I had to get close to engage with the work. Long after I left the exhibition I still wonder if the figures are both human. Are they two old men chatting in a retirement home, one boring the other senseless, or is it a theatrical performance?

The learning for my practice is that works can transcend their physical size, and an intriguing composition can create multiple narrative possibilities.

Options for kelp, in the work of Vera Moller: Viewed 27 August 2023

Moller, Vera. 2023. Verdana no. 2. Paper collage sculpture. Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria, Australia.

Photograph by Elizabeth Cole of Vera Moller's Verdana no. 2, 2023.

On 27 August 2023, I eagerly visited Vera Moller’s exhibition Sea.Liquid.Sensation.Flux.Space at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. I have long admired her small sculptures of coral reefs and sea life, seen at the Sophie Gannon Gallery and also in exhibition publications such as Water (Saines et al. 2019, 133). In fact I referred to one of her works in my first Fine Art Studio 2 report (Cole 2023b).

The exhibition included the sculptures that I expected to see, as well as evocative paintings of fluid forms, suggestive of kelp. However my overall impression was one of crowding, as there were so many works in the two gallery spaces. For me the density of the installation was a distraction. Indeed I was concerned about colliding with the floor and table based sculptures of the undersea.

This dossier update focussed on the work verdana no. 2. 2023. The paper collage based sculpture was suspended from the ceiling, mid room. Resembling the leaves of a giant kelp plant, the sculpture swayed gently with air currents. While I would not seek to replicate the materiality of the work, its size, staging and performative aspects intrigued me, and suggest possibilities for my own work.

My reaction to the crowded installation (i.e, its affect (Hickey-Moody 2013, 85-86)) also reminds me of the need to curate my work for the impact on the viewer, rather than my desire to show everything.

Bibliography:

• Cole, Elizabeth. 22 August 2023 2023b. Hiding in plain sight: Studio 2 Reflective Feedback report. RMIT University.

• Hickey-Moody, Anna. 2013. "Chapter 4 Affect as Method: Feelings, Aesthetics ad Affective Pedagogy." In Deleuze and research methodologies edited by Rebecca Coleman and Jessica Ringrose, 79-95. Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh, United Kingdom).

• Saines, Chris, Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Don Henry, Alexis Wright, Judy Watson, Bonita Ely, Ruby Djikarra Alderton, Paul Blackmore, Megan Cope, Lola Greeno, and Wukun Wanambi. 2019. Water. South Brisbane, Queensland: Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art.