The Robot That Sacrificed Itself For Art: A Story of Creativity and Innovation
And the lesson it holds for each and every one of us trapped in the post-capitalist system.
A sea of faces blurred behind the tempered glass. Some smiled with glee as the robot twisted and danced, while others wore more stony glares. The wiley machine bent this way and that, first folding itself over in a macabre dance called “ass shake” before cracking itself into another impossible angle as it delighted its viewers with a move known to creators at the Guggenheim Museum as “scratch an itch”.
These were the scenes taken in by visitors who first came across the art installation, Can’t Help Myself, by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu.
Commissioned by the Guggenheim in 2016, this prodigious artwork put some of the darkest elements of our society on display in a snapshot of heartbreak and radical honesty. The industrial robot, produced to dance for curious onlookers, was simultaneously set with the impossible task of keeping itself alive while leaking the very fluid it needed to complete its tasks.
For three years, in a gruesome scene, the robot danced. Every day, every moment it shook and trembled for its audience while more and more hydraulic fluid oozed from its wearing body. First arching…
