Insight: ‘Under Construction’, Geumhyung Jeong’s machines of intimacy & resistance

Text by CLOT Magazine

Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong (2024), installation view ICA (London). Photo credit: Rob Harris



At the ICA in London, Geumhyung Jeong’s Under Construction presented, from September to December 2024, a world where the boundaries between humans and machines are neither blurred nor entirely separate. Through sculpture, video, and performance, Jeong invited the audience into an environment where homemade robotic beings, built from skeleton models, DIY hardware, and spare parts, come to life under her guidance. These creations are not sleek imitations of modern technology but rather deliberate constructions that expose their wires, mechanisms, and imperfections. In doing so, Jeong repositions machines not as tools of efficiency but as collaborators requiring attention, care, and interaction.


Under Construction featured sculptures in constant flux, video documentation of their creation, and live performances where Jeong works alongside these robotic partners. The process itself becomes central to the experience, as the exhibition, much like the machines, is perpetually “under construction.” Jeong’s method, which the show curator Andrea Nitsche-Krupp describes as one of trial and error, involves attempts to replicate human movements that often resist or fail in unexpected ways. These moments of mechanical imperfection, far from being setbacks, become opportunities for discovery. The failures highlight the robots’ agency, as their limitations and unpredictability influence the choreography. The curator notes: If something wasn’t technically perfect in the details, the idea was correct, underscoring the way in which the work embraces imperfection as part of its essence.


For Jeong, the process of constructing these beings is not only technical but deeply relational. Her work moves beyond the realm of control into a space of negotiation and response. The curator observes that the human-machine relationship in the exhibition is “variable,” shaped by a dependency that flows both ways. The robots depend on Jeong for maintenance and operation, while Jeong, in turn, interacts with them as extensions of her own gestures and intentions. However, these robots are not designed to mimic humans seamlessly. As Nitsche-Krupp recounts, Jeong finds their clunky, imperfect movements endearing, commenting on how “cute” it is that they try to move like humans but in their own way. Their limitations, laid bare in their mechanical stiffness and exposed mechanisms, create a kind of honesty that contrasts with the polished sophistication of modern consumer technologies.


Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong (2024), work in progress.
Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong (2024), installation view ICA (London). Photo credit: Rob Harris


This dynamic relationship between the artist and her machines is complicated one step beyond by the audience’s role in the performances. Jeong specifically requested that the gallery remain fully lit during her live actions, refusing the typical separation between performer and observer. In doing so, she emphasizes the significance of the audience’s attention as part of the work. The curator reflects on this choice, noting how it positions the audience’s perception as integral to the performance, creating a feedback loop between the artist, the machines, and those watching. This heightened awareness of being observed parallels the robots’ own struggle to mimic human behaviour, fostering a layered interaction where the audience becomes acutely aware of their role in the exchange.


The exhibition’s title, Under Construction, reflects Jeong’s work’s fluid and temporal nature. The sculptures’ visible tools and spare parts suggest an ongoing process rather than a finished product. Nitsche-Krupp describes this as encountering the sculptures at a specific moment in their lifetime, noting that the unpredictable behaviour of the robots means that Jeong herself must adapt her plans in real-time. She arrived in London uncertain of the precise tools and materials she would need to continue her work, making the exhibition itself an evolving entity. This sense of temporality speaks to the shifting identities of the sculptures, whose movements and interactions are never entirely fixed.


Jeong’s approach to robotics resists the notion of automation as something sleek and autonomous. Instead, the exhibition foregrounds the care and maintenance required to sustain these machines, offering a counterpoint to the planned obsolescence of contemporary technology. The curator notes the contrast between Jeong’s relationship with her machines and the broader technological landscape of late-stage capitalism, observing how her work presents “a technological condition that requires and benefits from the care and attention of the artist.” By exposing the physical reality of her creations, Jeong draws attention to the labor and fragility that underpin even the most advanced technologies, encouraging audiences to reconsider their own relationships with the objects they use.


Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong (2024), installation view ICA (London). Photo credit: Rob Harris
Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong (2024), installation view ICA (London). Photo credit: Rob Harris


The emotional response elicited by Jeong’s robots is as complex as their mechanical construction. Their attempts at human-like movement, though flawed, evoke empathy, even as their skeletal frames and mechanical natures remind us that they are ultimately objects. The curator reflects on this tension, noting how our response to the robots shifts according to the degree to which we recognize their look or behaviour as human. This duality invites audiences into a space of ambiguity, where the line between animate and inanimate, human and machine, is constantly renegotiated.


Jeong’s work also resonates on a broader cultural level, shaped by her upbringing in Seoul during a period of rapid consumer growth in South Korea. Her sculptures, with their DIY construction and exposed mechanisms, seem to resist technological commodification, emphasising a slower, more reciprocal relationship between humans and machines. By addressing these dynamics through the physical presence of her sculptures, Jeong situates her work within a lineage of kinetic and interactive art while grounding it firmly in today’s global techno-capitalism.


In Under Construction, Geumhyung Jeong reimagines the role of technology in our lives, presenting it not as something to be perfected or dominated but as a collaborator in an ongoing dialogue. Her robots, with their clumsy movements and visible vulnerabilities, mirror our own struggles to navigate an increasingly technological world. Through her work and performances, Jeong asks us to consider what it means to care for and depend upon the machines we create, offering a vision of human-machine relationships that is as unsettling as deeply intimate.

















Website https://geumhyungjeong.com/
(Media courtesy of ICA)
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