Geumhyung Jeong

Under Construction

★☆☆☆☆

Curated by Andrea Nitsche-Krupp
On until 15 December 2024

A senseless transhumanism has become so ingrained in contemporary art that it no longer bothers to articulate it. At the centre of Jeong’s installation is an exploded human-and-machine skeleton. Were this assembly less pristine, one could have looked for traces of a pager that led to this apparent disaster. Nearby, neatly arranged tools point to some geeky joy in DIY body modification. Rows of widgets share table space with 3D-printed vertebrae. A CCTV room next door beams in images from the artist’s studio, where these skeletons are said to have found “life” in their exo-existence.

This tech-optimism might have entertained gallery-goers twenty years ago when technologists didn’t dare call themselves artists. After Björk’s robot love and Boston Dynamics, however, there is nothing novel, graceful, or left to discover in Jeong’s unstated proposal. To wonder if we are machines, or if machines could be human is as fruitless as considering this work as accomplished sculpture.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias at David Zwirner ★★★☆☆

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias

★★★☆☆

These images are perfectly charming even to a viewer possessed of a cold anthropological eye. The troubling part is in realising just how far ‘outside’ the ideas are.

TJ Wilcox, Hiding in Plain Sight at Sadie Coles HQ ★★☆☆☆

TJ Wilcox

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★★☆☆☆

Vanity proceeds in circles.

Andreas Angelidakis: Escape Room at the Greek pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Andreas Angelidakis

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Make Plato’s Cave Great Again

Stuart Middleton, The Human Model at Carlos/Ishikawa ★★☆☆☆

Stuart Middleton

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★★☆☆☆

An interest in material is core to this practice but Middleton mistrusts his instincts.

James Welling and Bernd & Hilla Becher at Maureen Paley ★★★☆☆

James Welling and Bernd & Hilla Becher

★★★☆☆

Welling’s veneration of brutalist concrete borders on fetish.

Phung-Tien Pham, doesn’t work at Project Native Informant ★★☆☆☆

Phung-Tien Pham

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★★☆☆☆

Fad aesthetics for fad ideas.

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