Materials: iron, water-proof heavy duty fabric, UV prints on silicone, chia seeds, liquid containers, repair lamp, silicone rubber

The newest body of works Creatures of Habit of the collaborative artistic duo Pakui Hardware derived from the duo’s interest in industrial robotic gear – various custom made covers and ‘clothing’ for robots in diverse industries. The metallic corpuses of industrial automated companions are stretched over with uniforms, which shield them from hazardous environments. The disposable cellophane, soft textiles or expensive hard duty, heat-resistant fabrics, usually used for these ’uniforms’ bring them even closer to their human coworkers, blending the organic and automated into a synthetic whole. In the installation Creatures of Habit, the artists present a group of sculptures in which metal figures are covered with special clothing made of heavy-duty water-proof materials, silicone, plastic and are equipped with some small mechanical devices. The covered ‘bodies’ merge machine-human features and gestures, creating an assembly of a yet unknown or transitory species.

Pakui Hardware’s installation resonates in the context of visions on automated societies of the future. Yet this time the centre of the work is not human, but the robotic bodies themselves.

Courtesy of the artists and Trafó Gallery, Budapest
Photocredit Pakui Hardware