‘Duel of Zero-Basic Athletes’

The Duel of the Novice Athletes with Zero Basics is an uninteresting work.

Two robotic vacuum cleaners, designed to facilitate human life, perform their tasks endlessly over long periods of time. Their labour is repetitive and dull. These bored workers seem destined for obsolescence from the moment they were invented.

The two ‘cleaners,’ each ‘holding’ a ping-pong paddle, appear to be attempting a game of table tennis. Occasionally, they manage to hit the ball. Most of the time, however, guided only by their internal programming, they move aimlessly across the space—until they reach an edge, change direction, and continue forward.

Xinghao Liang,
lum, sweeping robots, ping pong paddles,
150 × 80 × 150 cm,
2023