This autumn, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (ICA) presents, Under Construction, a solo exhibition by Geumhyung Jeong (b. 1980, Seoul) featuring a newly commissioned installation of sculpture and video, and series of live performances. Working from her background in choreography and a studied interest in the role of objects and technology in our lives, Jeong uses her body and animatronic figures built from DIY parts to parse the uncanny relationships between people and machines. In her past work, Jeong has animated self-constructed remote-controlled robots using mechanical and tech hardware tools and spare mannequin parts and medical dummies. With this new exhibition in the ICA’s lower galleries, Jeong expands her ongoing project, Under Construction, incorporating complete human skeleton models as a central component of the work.
Jeong constructs, cares for, and communicates with these homemade robot partners through an intimate dialogue of gestures and choreographed movements, evidenced in in-person performances and video installation. Under Construction will explore the link between humans and machines through autonomous sculptures, in-process constructions, and videos that both document actions between Jeong and the skeleton-machines, and the artist’s tender creation and maintenance of the work. These videos unfold the life of these forms, documenting the halting trial and error of Jeong’s developing constructions. As in the performances, the sculptures in the videos – more co-performers than objects – act in a clumsy, unreliable and human-like manner, soliciting an ambiguous empathy from the viewer.
Jeong’s installation offers a proposal for the active life of sculpture in a public institution. The artist will perform in-person with her figural machines multiple times during the run of the exhibition (dates to be announced shortly), reimagining and shifting the installation. Jeong’s work shares a valuable history with performative and interactive sculpture since the 1960s, while being firmly rooted in the present and a specific context of technology in late-stage capitalism, which the artist approaches from the perspective afforded by an adolescence spent in Seoul during the steep rise in consumerism in South Korea. This tender yet uncomfortable work represents nuanced investigation of global techno-capitalism, addressing human relationships with our technological counterparts through care and mutual exchange. Jeong addresses this fundamental component of our appended human society in a way only sculpture can – by addressing the physical relationships in space that underline our connection to objects as active agents.
Performance dates (times and tickets available soon):
8 & 9 October; 13 November, with a performative lecture on 15 November
Andrea Nitsche-Krupp, ICA Exhibitions Curator, says: ‘Working with Geumhyung Jeong to realise her new commission for the ICA London
has been enlivening, her work challenges us as an institution, and as viewers, in the best ways. Jeong is one of the most compelling and original exponents of performative installation and we’re delighted to be able to share her work with our audiences. Personally, it has been an honour to witness her artistic process unfolding these many months.’
Bengi Ünsal, ICA Director, says: ‘We are thrilled to support Geumhyung Jeong at this pivotal moment in her career as she continues to push the boundaries of her practice by blending continually evolving sculpture, choreography and performance. In bringing her work to an international
audience in London, the ICA reaffirms its commitment to championing interdisciplinary artists. Jeong’s exploration of the relationship between humans and machines offers us profound insights into what it means to live in our technological age, and we are proud to present her groundbreaking work in this solo exhibition.’
