Haegue Yang: Leap Year at Hayward Gallery, London

At QDT we love the iconography around clothes washing whether it be the illustration guides on clothes labels to help us know how to care for our items; the beauty of watching sheets drying outside, gently moving to the whim of the wind; or watching colourful materials tumble round a washing machine. Inspired by our wonderful Harriet’s Press project we are always on the lookout for creative responses to washing. A few weeks ago, QDT Chair, Victoria Patrick, and I were able to attend the launch of the new exhibition at Hayward Gallery on the Southbank in London.

The South Korean artist, Haegue Yang, has a solo show filling the massive gallery space over its three floors, called Leap Year. The exhibition is described as spanning “a vast range of media – from paper collage to performative sculpture and immense sensorial installations. Equally as wide-ranging, her inspiration draws on diverse histories and customs, including East Asian traditions and folklore, modernism, contemporary art history and nature.”

With that in mind we were pleasantly surprised by the artist’s use of everyday items, namely the common drying rack, almost identical to the one I use at home.

Upon entering the gallery through a curtain of bells you are then surrounded by drying racks. Piled on top of one another, strewn with strings of light bulbs, they become sculptural in the classic form, eg. objects found in a white walled gallery space, but also they’re more than that. The elevation of a very practical everyday object, one that is – if I’m being honest – much more functional over aesthetically beautiful, is kind of wonderful. The height, the complex layers, the lines each stack creates makes them almost human, a Futurist style vision of one moving through the space yourself. The lights capture a magic from within, the spark of an idea, that we are more than our simple functioning self, we are individuals with so much potential.

And thinking of these pieces in particular (the exhibition is massive and this is just a small piece that I am focusing on) and that of QDT’s agenda, they really made me think of the domestic and the drying racks as a metaphor for our daily lives, how they fold and unfold. How they are shown without clothes drying upon them, almost laying the object and ourselves bare, in some way.

I found this work by Yang to be so beautiful and something that really caught me off guard and gave me a lot to think about. The exhibition, Leap Year, is on now until 5th January 2025 and if you find yourself in London soon, I would highly recommend a visit! Standard tickets are £19, with discounts available for under 30s, students, pensioners and people on certain benefits.