Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern, a print catalog of the celebrated South Korean artist's first solo exhibition in the Philippines, will be launched on 23 March at the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar in Quezon City. The event will commence with an art talk with Yang.

The artist, who resides and works in Seoul and Berlin, is known for her unique interweaving of conceptual language and appealing vocabulary. 

The Cone of Concern, mounted at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) in Manila, takes its name from a graphical sign in weather forecasting which traces the path of an oncoming tropical storm.

Yang explores this concept as a way to understand humanity's attempt to confront natural phenomena. It is also a metaphoric notion of solidarity among those facing destructive circumstances.

Named after the installation, the book revisits The Cone of Concern and its complex layering of objects — anthropomorphic rattan sculptures, light sculptures, rotating sonic disks with metallic bells, whirlwind-derived wall partitions, elements of textile canopies, fans, and sounds — against a lenticular print backdrop of a digitally constructed space full of meteorological measuring devices.

It features a conversation with the artist, as well as essays in English by Esther Lu, former director of the Taipei Contemporary Art Center and the curator of This is not a Taiwan Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013; and Daisy Nam, executive director at Ballroom Marfa.

More contributors include Leilani Lynch, associate curator at Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Denver, formerly of The Bass in Miami, Florida, where Yang exhibited In the Cone of Uncertainty; June Yap, director of curatorial and collections at the Singapore Art Museum; and Joselina Cruz, director of MCAD.

Designed by Seoul and Hong Kong-based Studio Hik, the hardcover publication measures 21 cm x 28 cm. It comprises 168 pages — over 100 of which are images of the artworks displayed during the show, as well as additional photographs of other installations. It will be distributed worldwide by German book publisher Hatje Cantz.

It is free and open to the public. It is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, 2024, at 3 p.m. at the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar along Fernando Poe Jr. Avenue in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City. Interested participants may register through tinyurl.com/The-Cone-of-Concern.

Haegue Yang: The Cone of Concern will likewise be launched in Hong Kong on 26 March at The Lawn.