R O B O T S
- 2019

Cloth figures faceless, uncanny and anonymous. Their angular anatomy and human-likeness is reminiscent of primitive representation of humans, or, rather, of the android human-like robots that are soon to populate the earth. In either case, the robots are shaped in the likes of their maker. In creating robots, Rad Hourani redefines humanity and identity, as in to reach consciousness, creating his limitless reality rather than letting himself be created by society. The robots challenge us to question ourselves as to whether we are individually programmed or living by our own free will...

Through color symbolism, the viewer may be tempted to attribute fabricated traits to the figures: the yellow one is playful. The purple one is a girl. The black one is mysterious. These thoughts are the fruit of our own programmation: the robots are identical blank slates, devoid of any real signifiers, reflections of our own robotic state. We are therefore marionettes to societal constructs, and letting these control every will and decision we could make, beyond our comprehension or reach. As we begin to understand this and as our perception shift in favor of the robots, we begin to ponder whether these blank beings, unprogrammed after all as they are filled with foam and not wires, capable of being modeled into any identity, may be more liberated, and superior to our own pre-set psyche.

Scaled to Rad Hourani’s height, the robots relate the viewer to their own humanity, facing them as equals. Their offsprings, half-sized replicas of the the full-size figures, nest in their arms, wrapped around themselves and each other in pastiche of a human child’s stuffed toy, as if to probe the viewer into questioning the legitimacy of having children, little robots that bear their likeness, that they will get to program in their turn. Above the maker, larger than the artist, it embodies the soul and essence of its kin. These cloth sculptures contextualize our own humanity in relation to The Other, the familiarity of their plush bodies contrasting with the dooming reality of Artificial Intelligence.