The mechanics of care come under scrutiny in Geumhyung Jeong’s uncanny installation of needy robots. 

What would it be like to meet your maker? Just ask the robotic creations of South Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong. 

Her bespoke artificial beings might be cobbled together from inanimate parts, but beneath their cold exteriors pulse something all too familiar. Clumsy, flawed and requiring great care, their imperfections only serve to make them more sympathetic than you might think. 

Jeong’s relationship with her robots is at the heart of this work – through her kindly administration of attention and repair, she blurs the line between technician, caregiver, surgeon and saviour. At the same time, these machines increasingly trouble the distinctions separating humanity and its creations, instead proposing a shared world of coexistence. 

Choreographer and performance artist Geumhyung Jeong uses her ‘toys’ to introduce viewers into an eerie world in which human and machine are uncomfortably intimate. In an age of unprecedented techno-dependence, her works ask provocative questions of the onlooker with implications that linger long after the batteries have died. 

With Under Maintenance, her toys have reached a new stage of vitality, but at the same time need more attention than ever before. Show a little kindness – these robots need it. 

Artnet “Could We Love Machines? Korean Artist Geumhyung Jeong’s Performative Robots Test Our Empathy. The artist builds her own machines from scratch and performs with them via remote control” by Kate Brown, May 4, 2021