From the very beginning his purpose was not only acceptation of the media progress and technical development, which his works are devoted to, but also propelling them with his own fantasies and by crossing the apparently firm borders between specific disciplines, which separate the serious art from the entertaining one.
Nam
June Paik is known as the one of the most important people in the
history of Video-art. From the beginning he was connected with
electronic music. He studied aesthetics, history, philosophy, theory
of music. In the 60s he was involved in Fluxus movement. He was
dealing with the art concept, promoting what is happening NOW. He has
never hiding banality and lack of seriousness2.
In practise he was using performance, happening, and artistic events
such as concerts. The distance from the traditional frame of arts
and big inspiration from Dada movement was very characteristic about
this movement. Nam Jun Paik started to collaborate with this
movement. The conclusions were his big achievements in sector of
Video-Art.
An
artist is a pioneer in full meaning of this word. For example, he
constructed a robot K 456 and first video installations. Paik started
to use television in his art projects, which started to be inherent
element of his work. An Artist was trying to show its communication
skills-possibilities in the most open and wide way.
His
first exhibition Exposition of Music -
Electronic Television (1963), and
presentation of changed TV sets, is now the part of the history as a
moment of birth for media arts.
In 1964 Paik went to New York. He started to work with Charlotte Moorman-cello player. They started to create the series of performances, which included video, interaction and music. In
In 1964 Paik went to New York. He started to work with Charlotte Moorman-cello player. They started to create the series of performances, which included video, interaction and music. In
this period of time Paik very intensively started to be interested in technological opportunities which gives television and video. He was cooperating with Shuya Abe, they made electronic picture-screen synthesizer, in New York´s laboratory of TV station WNET .
His first retrospective exhibition was made in Kunstverein. In the next years Paik had many other very important artistic events (with Joseph Beuys and Douglas Davies he made on document 6 (1977) TV transmission, which was first artistic project using satellite connection.
In
1978 Paik started to be the first teacher of Video –Art in Europe-
Düsseldorf Academy, in 1987 member of Art Academy in Berlin.
Exhibition Artist as Nomad,
was made with Hans Haack. They get golden medal in 1993, in Venice
Art Bienalle. An artist got then many prices: Guggenheim Museum,
Rockefeller Foundation, United States Film Institute, or UNESCO-
Picasso Medal. His individual exhibitions took place in the most
important galleries and museums in the whole world. His
works-projects are now decoration of many world wide collections.
In
1999 American artistic magazine "ARTnews", found him as one
from twenty five the most influential artist from this century. Nam
June Paik died on 29th of January 2006 in Miami.
Nam June Paik had visionary views on culture and society. Even today it is a source of inspiration for artist from different generations. In 1974 he implemented the term: Electronic Superhighway had very big influence for showing the needs for the new era.
Nam June Paik had visionary views on culture and society. Even today it is a source of inspiration for artist from different generations. In 1974 he implemented the term: Electronic Superhighway had very big influence for showing the needs for the new era.
The
most important projects of Nam June Paik are: Zen
for TV (1963), TV
Bra for Living Sculpture (1969), Global
Groove (1973), Video
Buddha (1974), Moon
is The Oldest TV (1976), Guadalcanal
Requiem (1976), TV
Aquarium (1977), Merce
by Merce (1979), Tricolor
Video (1982), Good
Morning, Mr Orwell (1984), Beuys/Voice
(1987).
Video Buddha is a
simple project. A Buddha figure, which the camera lenses are pointed
to, was located in front of a TV. The camera was directly registering
the image and the spectator could see stable frame-shot with the
figure. Obviously this is not a coincidence that the Indian prophet
appeared in the camera´s spotlight. Thanks to John Cage (musician of
the American avant-garde) Nam June Paik got to know and started to be
fascinated in the Zen philosophy. In the opinion of Urszula
Usakowska- Wolff this project should make the spectator realize that
looking is not the same as seeing3.
TV Buddha
Cello
Nam
Jun Paik was building various constructions from TV sets. He was
building in the instruments; he was putting them in natural contests
like in for example project: TV Garden,
where the TV sets were in the garden among plants. He was giving
structures concrete shapes, by making robots or animals from TV sets
– Turtle was
build from 166 colourful screens. Urszula Usakowska- Wolff, wrote
that we can see in Paik’s art full evolution, author-media-audience
evolution. At the beginning TV medium was just the single receiver.
It was easy at the beginning to control the receiver. But after a
while it began to be a mass
of colourful pictures, thanks which it is possible to control the
mass receiver.
Turtle
Video –TV garden
Nam
June Paik loved music and it is clearly visible that he was very
often using music motives in his projects. A lot of his works are
connected to the idea of the real music. They are connected to the
life concerts, very often played by Paik himself.
.
For example among the installations we can see a piano build in to TV
sets(Video Piano),
or performance in which a woman is holding few screens that are
connected to each other- they all together looked like cello (TV
Cello).
Video Piano
The
artist also put motives of sexuality in his work. It is very visible
in project TV Bra for Living Sculpture,
in which a woman with cello has two TV screens attached to her
breast.
Nam
June Paik thought that any culture cannot be captured into the
concrete collection of symbols and signs. Each culture is a mix of
other cultures, often a collection of inconsistent elements.
Syncretism is very characteristic feature that appeared in Paik´s
work, which is very often a supersede feature. He was frequently
connecting elements from different worlds.
For example: Video Buddha
it is a compilation of a Buddhist religious culture, very often
represent by the Buddha figure within the symbol of consumptive
culture which is television. The Korean connects techniques with
floral elements (TV Garden),
animalistic (Turtle)
music elements (TV Cello;
TV Bra for Living Sculpture
or Video Piano).
TV Bra for Living Sculpture
This
video-art pioneer did not put itself into a frame of significant
topics. He created also projects full of abstracts and symbols.
Nam
Jun Paik was very often creating compilations very similar to already
know elements-parts of the world-daily world such as animals,
plants-floral elements or music instruments or other things-subjects.
In his work we can find also different projects, specific and
characteristic-they are unusual. The most abstractive is Zen
for head, in which artist was painting
on the cardboard using his own head soaked in ink.
The
author was interested in possibilities which give us light (projects
in which he was using laser light).
Zen for head
Laser
is both delicate and pompous. It gives men a sensational feeling.
Since I am apoplectic I became kind of religious. I need something
that relieves my life from a daily poverty. Paik
told "art” magazine (Nr 12/1999).
Laser
projects are now in Museum Guggenheim in New York. In TV
Clock 1989, Paik put 18 TV sets in a
semicircle; through each he let the stream of light, so that each of
them showed position of a clock hand. Pyramid
II, from Three
elements (1997- 2000) collection, is a
cone, a prism through which he directed laser streams-, contracting
in abstractive construction within light lines inside of the prism.
He made very similar experiments using ball and cube figures.
Three elements
Jacob's Ladder,
is a very interesting assembly in Museum Guggenheim. Paik put TV sets
on the museum’s walls; he created an installation made from mirrors
that reached from the floor to the ceiling of the museum, which he
assembled on the whole length of the building from both sides of the
construction. Between the mirrors he created a, so called, waterfall.
Afterwards Paik directed a green stream of the laser light on the
mirrors, which were reflecting from mirrors below was going through
whole height (Museum height), very smoothly going through the
waterfall.
Jacob's Ladder
One
project that is extremely important in author´s biography is
Electronic Superhighway: Continental
U.S. project. It is an installation
build from 313 screens surrounded by colourful neons -which were
creating lines-borders-shape of United States of America. It is
possible to interpret this work in the frame that: although the
technical and technological development borders of the country are
still untouched, they are the same.
In
opinion of many people Nam Jun Paik through the idea-concept:
Electronic Superhighway
was the first who predicted today’s: World Wide Web.
If
you create a highway people invent cars. (...) If you create an
electronic highway something has to happen. 4
If
you give the human being a field of possibilities, unfiled area that
means that he will for sure fill it in. The question is how many
highways will appear?
Electronic Superhighway
Nam
Jun Paik was an artist without who today´s contemporary art would be
much poorer. Today this character-person is an object of discourse
in Arts. In many areas and specifically in Video-Art he was a pioneer
and a visionary. He was fascinated by the development, what was going
on in technology and what will appear in this field in the future.
Paik was trying to explore comunication and visual possibilities of
twentieth century achievements. His experiments were crossing the
line between the mass and elite arts. They were showing how we can
use technology, thanks to which we could see what technology can do
with people. And we were then just at the very beginning of the
interactive arts progress and development.
Autor tekstu:
K. Wójcik dla www.kreatywnepiny.pl
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Bibliography
- Usakowska- Wolff, U., Fluxus/Video/Lux, Kwartalnik ORO Nr 3 (40) 2000
- De Meredieu, F., Digital and video art, wyd. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh 2005
- Cytat z: Usakowska- Wolff, U., Fluxus/Video/Lux, Kwartalnik ORO Nr 3 (40) 2000
- Fotofrafie z google.com
1Cytat
z: Usakowska- Wolff, U., Fluxus/Video/Lux, Kwartalnik ORO Nr
3 (40) 2000
2De
Meredieu, F., Digital and video art, wyd. Chambers Harrap
Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh 2005
3Usakowska-
Wolff, U., Fluxus/Video/Lux, Kwartalnik ORO Nr 3 (40) 2000
4
rhizome.org,
interview by Tilmana Baumgartela with N. J. Paikiem I'am a
communication artist
