In its cold, industrial slickness, the installation does not ally with a specific people or community at all. While the exhibitionary contexts of the installation underline its relationship with the historical and socio-political conditions of China in the age of modernity, however, its aesthetic presentation resists a single unified national identity. In Gu Shi Xin Bian, which literally translates to “Old Stories Retold,” Lu Xun rewrites traditional Chinese folktales and subjects their values to modern social critique, rendering literal the age-old adage “history repeats itself.” The title for the Venice Biennale borrows from an apocryphal Chinese saying that is also known as the “Chinese curse,” which uses the term “interesting times” as a sinister euphemism for unrest and turmoil.
The Guggenheim show takes its title from a collection of short stories Gu Shi Xin Bian(1936) by Chinese writer and critic Lu Xun, who was a leading figure in modernizing Chinese literature and now widely known for his cutting polemics against outmoded and conservative social values. Guggenheim Museum for its 2016 Tales of Our Time exhibition, Can’t Help Myself subsequently traveled to Venice in 2019, where it was shown at the Central Pavilion of the 58 th Venice Biennale “May You Live in Interesting Times.” The exhibitionary contexts for the installation are telling. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, “Can’t Help Myself” 2016įirst commissioned by the Solomon R. In an effort to clean up its mess, the robot only makes matters worse, but it never stops-it can’t stop itself. As the robot scrubs and sweeps the floor, stray drops of the liquid splash across the acrylic wall in the back and the surface of the case, beyond the perimeter of the robot’s reach. Every time, just as the robot successfully gathers the liquid toward itself, it oozes away and slides down the floor, and the task begins again. A modern-day, industrial Sisyphus, the robot plays a game against the laws of physics that it is doomed to lose. The robot, which consists of a flat base that is fixed to the floor and a long, crane-like arm, repeatedly bends over in order to sweep up the liquid with the brush attached to its head.
On the floor in the case is a pool of a crimson-colored liquid. Sun Yuan and Peng Yu’s large-scale installation Can’t Help Myself (2016) features an industrial robot made with stainless steel and rubber enclosed in a glass case. 0 Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Audience, Agency, and Complicity
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