Venezia, Art Biennale 2019

Can't Help myself, 2016
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu

In "Can't Help Myself" an industrial robot turns and flexes restlessly in its transparent "cage", almost like a creature capturesd and placed on display. The robot has been programmed to ensure that a thick, deep red liquid stays within a predetermined area. This blood-like fluid continually oozes away, triggering the robot's sensors and prompting the machine to shovel it back into place. The artists have "taught" the robot to perform 32 different movements - from "scratch and itch" to "ass shake" - giving it an uncanny, mesmerising human grace. For Sun Yuan and Peng Yu the uncontrollable liquid thet the machine keeps trying to contain conjures what they preserve to be art's essential elusiveness, its defiant refusal to being pinned down and fixed in place. This work was originally produced for the exhibition "Tales of Our Time" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and made possible by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.

Camera: Samsung Galaxy S10+

[tabarnliss]

this as to be my favorite art of all time, it makes me feels so much intense emotions i can’t describe, but i can feel the anxiety, it’s stressing me out, it’s incredible

[fraudulent_taxation]

When it like takes a break and only moves one joint back and forth its like its trying to catch its breath, and when i lifts up and spins around slowly its like its looking and all there is left to do, like its panicking seeing all its work be useless. Yet it cant stop trying to fix and clean

[mushroofficial]

This art piece just makes me cry because it just represents life. That ur trying but still fail, It also represents how stressed people are and it also gives me anxiety vibes. This art piece is just beatiful

[Nitronomic]

I wish someone would set up a live stream for this.

[vulpesinculta]

this art piece had been working and moving for years. in 2019 it "died", meaning it was unplugged, then was renamed "couldn't help myself".

[artisanrox]

As an alternate interpretation, it screams and panics to do its ONE job (i love how this thing sounds) and occasionally stops to congratulate itself, completely ignoring the mess it made...while doing its ONE job.

[imnothere]

I really love this piece, it’s an interesting combination of coding, engineering, and art.

[starlouise]

"No piece of art has ever emotionally affected me the way this robot arm piece has. It's programmed to try to contain the hydraulic fluid that’s constantly leaking out and required to keep itself running...if too much escapes, it will die so it's desperately trying to pull it back to continue to fight for another day. Saddest part is they gave the robot the ability to do these 'happy dances' to spectators. When the project was first launched it danced around spending most of its time interacting with the crowd since it could quickly pull back the small spillage. Many years later... (as you see it now in the video) it looks tired and hopeless as there isn't enough time to dance anymore.. It now only has enough time to try to keep itself alive as the amount of leaked hydraulic fluid became unmanageable as the spill grew over time. Living its last days in a never-ending cycle between sustaining life and simultaneously bleeding out... (Figuratively and literally as its hydraulic fluid was purposefully made to look like it's actual blood).
"The robot arm finally ran out of hydraulic fluid in 2019, slowly came to a halt and died - And I am now tearing up over a friggin robot arm 😭 It was programmed to live out this fate and no matter what it did or how hard it tried, there was no escaping it. Spectators watched as it slowly bled out until the day that it ceased to move forever. Saying that 'this resonates' doesn't even do it justice imo. Created by Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, they named the piece, 'Can't Help Myself'. What a masterpiece. What a message."
Extended interpretations: the hydraulic fluid in relation to how we kill ourselves both mentally and physically for money just in an attempt to sustain life, how the system is set up for us to fail on purpose to essentially enslave us and to steal the best years of our lives to play the game that the richest people of the world have designed. How this robs us of our happiness, passion and our inner peace. How we are slowly drowning with more responsibilities, with more expected of us, less rewarding pay-offs and less free time to enjoy ourselves with as the years go by. How there's really no escaping the system and that we were destined at birth to follow a pretty specific path that was already laid out before us. How we can give and give and give and how easily we can be forgotten after we've gone.. How we are loved and respected when we are valuable, then one day we aren't any longer and we become a burden...and how our young, free-caring spirit gets stolen from us as we get churned out of the broken system that we are trapped inside of. Can also be seen to represent the human life cycle and the fact that none of us make it out of this world alive. But also can act as a reminder to allow yourself to heal, rest and love with all of your heart. That the endless chase for 'more' isn't necessary in finding your own inner happiness. Also to spend more time with friends and family, to dance more often, to laugh more with those who are close, to explore this plane of existence to its full extent and to make as many memories as possible while you are still able 💜

[qqedaa]

This art has a meaning to never give up and more meanings too.
The main objective for the robot/machine is to clean up their own oil
And for 3 years its still trying, robots/machines don't have feelings but we do that's the reason why we feel sad watching this robot/machine clean
It's because it represents us humans and lots of different meanings, the robot/machine is an arm just like a humans arm trying to get rid of their own blood and still trying to get rid of the blood loss
Just like us humans making mistakes and trying, never give up kids this is some good meaning and good art

RIP Cant help myself 2016-2019
Now it doesn't have to suffer no more

[icantread]

thanks for this video i was looking for one where you could hear the screaming well

[shawnblocker]

this makes me so sad. such a good piece.

[SiriusLee]

this work of art somehow moves me in a way that i hardly understand myself. On the one hand, you know for sure that it's just a robot that doesn't feel anything. On the other hand, you see despair that you have experienced yourself. because whatever he does, it will never be enough.

[scrumptitious]

the machine sounds near the end made it sound like it was just sobbing. freaky stuff

[girlmorbs]

Why am I crying over a robot sweeping up some fake blood

[baylee]

the way it screams is entrancing. obsessed with this piece forever.

[hanac]

This is exactly how it feels like when you're stressed/having anxiety attack but you NEED to collect yourself and keep trying whether it be assigments, work or other things, even if you keep failing because of the distress.

"I can't do this I just can't do this --OK OK I CAN do this just let's do this...-I can't I can't I just can't --I have to, I must, I can't" x100

[bianepomuceno]

É incrível como conseguimos sentir pena de algo que não tem sentimentos. Da um aperto no coração 🤧 O nome disso é arte e identificação.

[briangrafton]

This reminds me how we human work so hard but still never good enough work continue on and on until we die

[shylaklinedinst]

when watching this i see multiple things. first i see it as someone struggling in life… doing everything they can to fix everything but its not working so they get really upset and out of control but i also see it as even though its not necessarily working the machine still wants to stop and congratulate itself and have its omly little celebration for what its doing

[rm.p]

it used to like wave and dance to people while scraping up just a little bit of fluid but over time as the amount of fluid increased it slowly started to have less time to be all happy dancing and stuff. After a while it's just scraping the fluid just barely managing to keep up until it dies... I heard a theory that it was about how people slowly start to deteriorate because they find they have less time to do what they enjoy and instead only focus on working to just "scrape" by. Recently I found that the fluid wasn't even essential to keep it living; We're so enveloped in work that we forget to enjoy what we're working for in the first place