Haegue Yang

b. 1971, Korea

The installation Holiday for Tomorrow is composed of various elements, including a video essay. While sequences of the ‘resting phase’ of Seoul during the Chuseok days (traditional Korean bank holiday) unfold, a female voice reflects and contemplates on her subjective interpretation on the nature of a holiday. According to her observation, a holiday is mostly a socially agreed temporary suspension of labour from a restless production urge, only legitimated itself for the purpose of regeneration for better future production efficiency. However, a holiday often doesn’t function because so much expectation is projected onto it that even the most urgent needs and desires must be postponed for a better time, which is meant as the next holiday. Two semi-transparent structures surround the installation: a wooden screen and venetian blinds filter the sight of the viewer and serve as an obstacle to sight, suggesting a certain rest for the sense of sight. Shell Sculpture is a fairly absurd combination of material (shells) and form (Philosopher’s Stone). While shells reminds us of the concept of rest and leisure at a romantic seaside location, all used shells in this piece, in fact, come from seafood restaurants and is actually nothing but daily urban waste. This contradiction between a shell’s association and reality somewhat resembles the constantly delayed and therefore dysfunctional existence of holidays.

(Text: too early for vacation catalogue, 2008)