Trustworthy–Masked Eyes #277, 2016

Vinyl film and 5 framed collages consisting of security envelopes, graph paper, and origami paper on cardboard.
© Haegue Yang; courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City/New York, and Greene Naftali, New York. Photo by Elisabeth Bernstein.

Incorporating both craft techniques and industrial fabrication into her practice, Haegue Yang produces sculptures, installations, and two-dimensional works that address experiences of alienation in an interconnected world. In 2010 Yang began producing her Trustworthies, a series of wall-mounted works made from swatches of paper from the interiors of security envelopes from around the world. Though the graphic patterns found in these envelopes differ in color, density, and weight, they are each designed to ensure that the contents of the envelope remain private even as they travel across vast distances. Yang arranges these distinct, kaleidoscopic patterns chromatically, allowing viewers to make connections across the varying patterns and colors. Through these arrangements that center on the optical relationships between geometry and symmetry, viewers are able to meditate on questions of secrecy and surveillance—how information is gathered, obscured, and revealed in our digital age.