Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself

The Chinese artists Sun Yuan and Peng Yu participate in the 58th International Art Exhibition in Venice with their work “Can’t Help Myself” (2016). For this piece, Sun Yuan and Peng Yu use a Kuka industrial robot, stainless steel and rubber, cellulose ether in colored water, lighting grid with Cognex visual-recognition sensors, and polycarbonate wall with aluminum frame.

Info text (Guggenheim):

In this work commissioned for the Guggenheim Museum, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu employ an industrial robot, visual-recognition sensors, and software systems to examine our increasingly automated global reality, one in which territories are controlled mechanically and the relationship between people and machines is rapidly changing. Placed behind clear acrylic walls, their robot has one specific duty, to contain a viscous, deep-red liquid within a predetermined area. When the sensors detect that the fluid has strayed too far, the arm frenetically shovels it back into place, leaving smudges on the ground and splashes on the surrounding walls.
The idea to use a robot came from the artists’ initial wish to test what could possibly replace an artist’s will in making a work and how could they do so with a machine. They modified a robotic arm, one often seen on production lines such as those in car manufacturing, by installing a custom-designed shovel to its front. Collaborating with two robotics engineers, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu designed a series of thirty-two movements for machine to perform. Their names for these movements, such as “scratch an itch,” “bow and shake,” and “ass shake,” reflect the artists’ intention to animate a machine. Observed from the cage-like acrylic partitions that isolate it in the gallery space, the machine seems to acquire consciousness and metamorphose into a life-form that has been captured and confined in the space. At the same time, for viewers the potentially eerie satisfaction of watching the robot’s continuous action elicits a sense of voyeurism and excitement, as opposed to thrills or suspense. In this case, who is more vulnerable: the human who built the machine or the machine who is controlled by a human?
Sun Yuan & Peng Yu are known for using dark humor to address contentious topics, and the robot’s endless, repetitive dance presents an absurd, Sisyphean view of contemporary issues surrounding migration and sovereignty. However, the bloodstain-like marks that accumulate around it evoke the violence that results from surveilling and guarding border zones. Such visceral associations call attention to the consequences of authoritarianism guided by certain political agendas that seek to draw more borders between places and cultures and to the increasing use of technology to monitor our environment.
(Xiaoyu Weng)

Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Can’t Help Myself. 58th International Art Exhibition, “May You Live In Interesting Times”, La Biennale di Venezia, Central Pavilion, Giardini. May 8, 2019.

#venicebiennale #biennalearte2019 #sunyuanpengyu

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[lonesplashy]

The noises, he frantic movements. It looks like panic, it SOUNDS like panic. It’s constantly stressing itself over something it cannot do, much like the rest of us

[TenApplesforTime]

i feel like this is a great general representation of human anxiety/panic. no matter what its over, everyones been in that place where youre trying to fix something but because youre panicking and incapable of rational thought it just gets worse which causes you to panic even more and etc etc

[wolfilon]

The mechanical screeching almost sounds like screams, and the movements it makes feel panicked. This is an absolutely stunning piece of art

[NeoNovastar]

So this piece genuinely stresses me out, scares me even. It holds a special place in my heart, but it also deeply speaks to something in me that I dread. The aimless panic it portrays, its compulsion to set something right it will never be able to... man its just like panic attacks and ocd, which i deal with. It's that feeling. I can't help myself... not alone, at least.

[marklll]

It looks like a person bleeding out but they're still trying to prevent themselves from bleeding more. It looks absolutely painful and it's quite relatable in a way.

[darkestheir]

I feel like this is someone falling apart. Someone that isnt supposed to fall apart finally falling apart. They're messy, it's getting everyone, you cant pick it up. There are signs of it everywhere, beneath your eyes or on your arms, in your breath and how your hands move. You're falling apart and it wont come back

[AB-ghbe]

i feel like crying can someone please help this poor robot

[ProphetofGermaine]

Funny how an object that’s not alive or sentient can be programmed to work in such a way that it evokes emotions in us. Obviously it’s not actually stressed or undergoing pain like an animal in a cage; but it’s entire design is to evoke that emotion of a stressed and struggling work animal in distress. I think it’s really genius how he managed to capture that emotion from us.

[.dmentional]

It was named “Cant Help Myself”, but 2 years ago when it died, it was renamed “Couldn’t Help Myself.”

[svaclapp]

There is something so frustrating about the movement. You want the arm to just scoop the blood in a slow smooth, symmetrical motion to create a perfect circle of blood. It could be programmed to do that. But instead, it is shaking and throwing its arm up and back, swinging around, and scooping in a random chaotic way.

[ChINNg]

I stood there for probably 20 minutes watching it. Some other people did the same. There's something about it that's really captivating; the most memorable artwork of my venice biennale experience 2019!

[seacrystal]

The best depiction of self-harm I've ever seen in my life. The way "Can't help myself" can mean both "I am unable to help myself" and "I just can't resist"... Genius. One of my favourite works of art ever

[mszrtxx]

Why does this feel wrong to subject a lifeless piece of metal to this

[xxaqua_lpsxx]

The fact that this was created in that moment to represent an endless motion of work and repeating yourself. It slowly begins to stop, to rust and wear down, it gets tired of doing the same thing over and over again. One day it will no longer run and will fall apart just like the rest of us.

[Lulu-nhyc]

"art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable" - Cesar A. Cruz

[sugoi]

It kinda sucks that some people aren't able to feel the emotion in art and think people are being dramatic.
It's really hard to portray emotions such as this in art pieces. They really did well on this one. The fact that it stops at some point really just makes me relate it to how a human may just get to a point where they "can't help themself" anymore, desperately trying to put themselves back together, until they can't

[valkyria]

I can't help but anthropomorphize this robot.The name of it, "Can't Help Myself", plus its appearance, conjures up the image of someone who has killed somebody accidentally (or in a crime of passion) and is frantically trying to clean up the blood but there's just so much of it everywhere and it seems to keep spreading. The shaking "dance" kind of makes it look like it's sobbing or too panicked to know what to do with its limbs.

[maxjackson]

when it stopped moving and looked at the people, it felt like it was asking for help, but gave up..man, art is a wonder

[PortiaMonique]

It’s baffling how humans can recognize the stress in this art piece, but refuse to recognize the distress and sorrow in their fellow human being.

[Someone-tftk]

Feels like a horror movie. Also feels like me trying to get my art homework done at midnight when it's due the next day