Traces of Anonymous Pupil Authors
2001

B/W offset prints, laminated, mounted on aluminum dibond

16 pieces, 41.6 x 29.4 cm each

Ed. 30 / VI A.P.


Installation view of Family of Equivocations, Aubette 1928 and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France, 2013
Photo: Mathieu Bertola, Musées de la Ville de Strasbourg

Photo: Jaewon Choi

Haegue Yang’s Traces of Anonymous Pupil Authors (2001) is based on Korean school books for social studies and general engineering subjects from 7th to 9th grade. The workbooks belonged to the pupils themselves and show the markings they made while studying, i.e. circling, underlining, crossing out, completions, as well as additional notes. These markings represent the pupils' own connections of structuring and highlighting the content. In other words, it is the addition of one's own system to a system that, from the viewpoint of the pupils, is given and unalterable, in order to eventually fulfill the requirements of that system. Yang deletes the given texts, thereby representing the anonymous pupils’ markings as drawings. In isolating the self-paced learning aids, they gain a degree of independence, making one aware of the limitations of the given tools of education.

Exhibition history

The Cone of Concern, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), Manila, Phillipines, 2020

ETA 1994-2018, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany, 2018

Family of Equivocations, Aubette 1928 and Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France, 2013

Air Hole: Another Conceptualism from Asia, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan, 2011

Unpacking Storage Piece, Haubrokshows, Berlin, Germany, 2007

Punkt und Linie, Fläche und Raum, Zeichnung Heute, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Lübeck, Germany, 2005

From Dust to Dusk: International Exhibition of Contemporary Art, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2003

Subtile Elegance, La Galerie de Noisy-le-Sec, Noisy-le-Sec, France, 2002

Kunst und Technik, Mannheimer Kunstverein, Mannheim, Germany, 2002

We 're not going to give you pleasure, G39, Cardiff, UK, 2002

Luft und Wasser (Air and Water), Dresdner Bank, Frankfurt, Germany, 2002

Blink, Artsonje Center, Seoul, South Korea, 2002

Kunstpreis der Deutschen Volksbanken und Raiffeisenbanken, Kunst-Werke, Berlin, Germany, 2002

1 Site 2 Places, Galerie der Stadt, Sindelfingen, Germany, 2001

Sonderfarben, Kommunale Galerie Darmstadt, Germany, 2001

Tirana Biennale 1, Tirana, Albania, 2001