The Korean contemporary artist Haegue Yang’s Sonic Rescue Ropes (2021), an installation commissioned by M+, is currently being presented at the museum which recently opened its doors to the public in the West Kowloon Cultural District of Hong Kong. Asia’s first museum dedicated to contemporary visual culture, M+ is led by director Suhanya Raffel and deputy director Doryun Chong, who jointly ranked 78 on the 2021 Power 100 list announced by the respected British arts magazine ArtReview. Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the expansive cultural institution houses 33 galleries, along with other various facilities including three cinemas, a research center, followed by a number of restaurants and bars. Under its slogan, “more than a museum,” M+ showcases a holistic collection of works from Hong Kong, Asia, and beyond. To celebrate its inauguration, M+ presents approximately 1,500 works across six special exhibitions including Antony Gormley and a selection drawn from the M+ Sigg Collection, along with ambitious commissioned works by Haegue Yang and Danh Vō.

Haegue Yang, known for her practice that interweaves a range of materials and historical references to create multisensory experiences, displays her Sonic Rescue Ropes at the museum’s subterranean display space called the ‘Found Space.’ Referencing her earlier work Sonic Ropes (2020-), introduced at her solo exhibition MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2020: Haegue Yang―O₂ & H₂O at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Sonic Rescue Ropes features gleaming cords of bells that drape down from the ceiling, linked together with metal rings. Designed in various sizes and forms, Sonic Rescue Ropes explores the myriad ways in which the body responds to the work; earlier wall-mounted works from the Sonic Sculptures (2013-) create rattling sounds when rotated by hand, while Sonicwear (2013-) is worn directly on the body, triggering a resonance between the physical touch and acoustic sensation. Meanwhile, in the freestanding sculpture Sonic Domesticus (2020), handles mediate the body and the work to build a relationship in between. Sonic Rescue Ropes, of which the ends are dropped down almost to touch the floor, similarly introduces a new form of interaction between the work and the body. Inspired by the Korean folktale Sister Sun and Brother Moon, the installation takes the form of a rope that provides an escape from the hardships of reality. Resonating a rattling sound vertically towards the ceiling, Yang’s multisensory installation stimulates the viewers’ sensorial intuition toward the world of imagination. While the current work will be activated occasionally throughout the duration of the exhibition, a new commission by Yang will be presented on-site in spring.