The art is called “Can’t help myself” where the robot is constantly sweeping in it’s “blood” and occasionally thrashing a bit like it’s panicking. It’s pretty creepy, watch a video of it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can’t_Help_Myself_(Sun_Yuan_and_Peng_Yu)
Two years after the completion of Can’t Help Myself, it came to a permanent halt in 2019. The death was not due to hydraulics or the loss of too much fluid, as Can’t Help Myself was completely programmed, ran on electricity, and powered off every night by museum staff. The artwork was programmed to perpetually squeegee the “blood-like” fluid seeping from its inner core, as a Sisyphean task, but not as a life necessity. The death of Can’t Help Myself was completely subject to the decision of the artists, and in 2019 they decided to enter the gallery space and unplug their creation.
The blood-like substance, although useless for the functionality for the object itself, is a testament to the bloodshed that spills out from industrialization and technological violence at geopolitical borders in China and across the globe. The Sisyphean task of cleaning up the spillage is a reference to border technology’s sole purpose of causing bloodshed and restricting migrants from passing a specific point.
