The solo exhibition《Toys, Selected》by Korean artist Geumhyung Jeong, currently on view at the non-profit contemporary art institution Canal Projects in New York’s Lower East Side, continues to draw sustained attention. Originally opened on May 9, 2025, the exhibition has been extended until November 22, allowing for an even richer audience experience.

Founded in 2022, Canal Projects is a contemporary art organization that emphasizes “radical and experimental practices” through the support of emerging and mid-career artists, long-term projects, residencies, publishing, and academic programs.


 
Incomplete Robots beneath Surgical Lights

The exhibition space evokes the atmosphere of a laboratory or clinic, illuminated by stark fluorescent lighting. On tables lie assemblages of mannequin limbs and torsos, outdated medical equipment, metal frames, wires, and batteries. These objects, while non-functional, are displayed in passive, almost “sleeping” poses. They radiate presence in stillness, hinting at a latent potential to awaken into motion.

Mechanisms and Narratives

Jeong’s so-called “DIY robots” are not about technological precision but about a kind of relational animism. Their exposed circuits resemble “mecha cardiovascular systems,” appearing strangely organic. The artist describes her process as tactile and at times fetishistic—touching, assembling, and sensually connecting machine and body.

Video and Repair: Exposing Imperfection

Accompanying the installation are video recordings that document the robots’ assembly and testing. Viewers witness robots stumbling, breaking, and being repaired again and again. This cycle of fragility and care emerges as the very core of the work’s artistic message.

For Jeong, smooth functionality is less important than failure: “Defects are precisely the points of contact with human conditions.” By foregrounding the vulnerability and incompleteness of machines, she reveals an uncanny sense of humanity within them.

Performance Toy Demo : Sensual Communion with Machines

On May 23–24, 2025, Jeong staged a performance titled Toy Demo. Breathing alongside the robots, she enacted gestures that were tender, curious, and choreographically subtle. The performance invited audiences into a liminal experience—at once controlling and being controlled.
 
The Brooklyn Rail described the show as “a Frankensteinian spectacle where robotic forms wander between creation and organism, compelling us to critique the mechanisms of control in human–machine relations.”

Meanwhile, The Gray Market noted that Jeong’s robots “function as devices that induce emotional bonding, revealing the complex layers of affective longing between humans and machines.”
 
Far from mere sculpture,《Toys, Selected》poses questions at the threshold of technology and affect. Through awkward movements, cycles of breakdown and repair, and sensuous performance, Jeong interrogates the very point where machine and emotion converge. The exhibition underscores why she is one of the most internationally watched Korean artists today, while highlighting the critical and ethical perspectives that Korean contemporary art can bring to technological aesthetics.

Geumhyung Jeong (b. 1980, Seoul) originally trained in theater and has since developed a multidisciplinary practice spanning performance, painting, and installation. Her exhibition history includes a performance at Tate Modern (2017), a solo show at Kunsthalle Basel (2018), and participation in the Venice Biennale Main Exhibition (2022).

As a note, Canal Projects is currently closed for the summer.《Toys, Selected》will reopen on Friday, September 19, 6–8 PM.

References

• Canal Projects official website:《Geumhyung Jeong: Toys, Selected》(exhibition details)(Canal Projects)
• The Brooklyn Rail, 《Geumhyung Jeong: Toys, Selected》(review by Ho Won Kim)(The Brooklyn Rail) 
• The Gray Market, “Emotional Mechanics in Geumhyung Jeong’s Work”(Canal Projects)
• Canal Projects, Toy Demo performance information(Canal Projects)