Byungjun Kwon ‘Jangseung’

Byungjun Kwon ‘Korea Artist Prize 2023’ [03.01.2024] @ National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

There is something deeply unnerving about this robot performance. Unlike the automatons we’re used to seeing in warehouses and assembly lines these serve no clear purpose. Particularly haunting is the one with the flashlight head and ladder body that wanders in circles, staring at its shaky silicon hands. They are clunky and frail. They are useless to capital, just like the human workers left behind by technological change.