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VIDEO VIRTUOSO
NARRATOR:
THIS IS THE VIDEO ART OF NAM JUNE PAIK. AND SO IS THIS, AND THIS, AND
THIS. AND THIS IS THE ARTIST… THE FATHER OF VIDEO ART, NAM JUNE PAIK WAS
BORN IN SOUTH KOREA 68 YEARS AGO, WHERE HE STUDIED MUSIC COMPOSITION.
TODAY, HE’S PLAYING A PIECE HE WROTE WHEN HE WAS 16 YEARS OLD. WRITTEN FOR THE RIGHT HAND. A STROKE, A FEW YEARS AGO, LIMITED HIM PHYSICALLY BUT NOT CREATIVELY.
IN THE EARLY 1960’S, PAIK’S INTEREST CHANGED FROM MUSIC TO THE ELECTRONIC MOVING IMAGE. VIDEO, HE THOUGHT, COULD BE A MEDIUM FOR ART. THE CATHODE RAY TUBE WOULD BE HIS CANVAS.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“I wanted to kind of test what direction you can take video art.”
NARRATOR:
PAIK SAYS HE WANTED TO HUMANIZE TECHNOLOGY, SO HE BUILT A SCULPTURE,
USING VINTAGE TELEVISIONS SETS AND RADIO CABINETS. HE CALLED IT “FAMILY
OF ROBOT”. THAT’S GRANDMOTHER ON THE LEFT AND GRANDFATHER ON THE RIGHT.
AND “HI-TECH BABY,” A FEW FEET AWAY, IS PERMANENTLY HYPERACTIVE.
THERE’S A HINT OF HUMOR IN MANY OF PAIK’S WORKS. THE “I LOVE TO LAUGH “ BUMPER STICKER ON THE BACK OF HIS WHEEL CHAIR, MAY SUM-UP HIS FEELINGS TOWARD HIS ART. PAIK MOVED TO NEW YORK IN 1964. A PLACE, HE SAYS, WOULD ACCEPT AND SUPPORT HIS NEW IDEAS. IDEAS THAT WERE, IN FACT, ANTI-ART… AVANT- GUARDE… FREEWHEELING.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“We wanted to criticize everything existing. To put into question everything
that existed in 1964.”
NARRATOR:
A RETROSPECTIVE OF HIS VIDEO ART WAS RECENTLY HELD AT THE GUGENHEIM
MUSEUM IN NEW YORK. JON IPPOLITO WAS THE ASSISTANT CURATOR OF THE EXHIBIT.
JON IPPOLOTO:
“We have an artist who created essentially the medium of video art
in 1963. Created the first video synthesizer, a way of manipulating video
images, in 1969. Coined the term “Electronic Super Highway” in 1976.”
NARRATOR:
PAIK’S INFLUENCE ON OUR MEDIA CULTURE CAN BE SEEN HERE IN TIMES SQUARE.
JON IPPOLOTO:
“The way he mixes images together so quickly, a video editing style
that now looks familiar from things like MTV and SUV commercials.
NARRATOR:
AND THIS IS THE VIDEO SYNTHESIZER PAIK USES TO EXPERIMENT WITH HIS
IMAGES. WITH THIS MACHINE HE CAN ALSO PERFORM RAPID-FIRE EDITING OF THE
PICTURES. SOME SEE PAIK AS A VIDEO GURU. HE SEES HIMSELF QUITE DIFFERENTLY.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“I’m kind of a humble guy…modest.
NARRATOR:
FOR THE GUGGENHEIM EXHIBIT, PAIK PLACED TELEVISION MONITORS EVERY WHERE.
HE POSITIONED 100 OF THEM ON THE FLOOR FACING UP. HE SCATTERED THEM AMONG
LIVE FOLIAGE IN HIS “TV GARDEN.” HE HAS A TV CHAIR, A TV CELLO, AND TV
GLASSES.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“No one ever went broke underestimating the Americans’ taste.”
JON IPPOLOTO:
“I think there’s no question that Paik’s work is entertaining, dazzling,
and sometimes even shocking,”
NARRATOR:
AND HE ESPECIALLY SHOCKED AUDIENCES IN THE LATE 60's AND 70's WHEN
CHARLOTTE MOORMAN WORE HIS TV BRA AS SHE WAS PLAYING A PIECE HE WROTE FOR
THE CELLO.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“Art is what pleases me at this moment.”
NARRATOR:
IN HIS “VIDEO FISH” HE PUT TWENTY AQUARIUMS IN FRONT OF TWENTY TV MONITORS.
SOME WORRY THIS MAY HARM THE FISH, BUT PAIK IS UNCONCERNED.
NAM JUNE PAIK:
“They procreate.”
NARRATOR:
ANOTHER WORK OF ART FOCUSES ON THE FLAME OF A CANDLE, WHICH IS PROJECTED
ONTO A MUSEUM WALL. IN THIS WAY IT’S POSSIBLE TO SEE PATTERNS IN A FAMILIAR
OBJECT THAT WE WOULDN’T NORMALLY SEE. PAIK SAYS HE HAS JUST ABOUT EXHAUSTED
ANY NEW WAYS OF PRESENTING THE ELECTRONIC IMAGE AND IS NOW TURNING TO LASERS.
FOR THE GUGENHEIM EXHIBIT HE ERECTED A WATERFALL WITH A LASER ZIZ-ZAGGING
THROUGH IT. IN A DARKENED ROOM, A GLASS PYRAMID CONTAINING LASERS, MIRRORED
CHAMBERS AND PRISMS.
FOR FORTY YEARS, NAM JUNE PAIK HAS EXPANDED THE DEFINITIION OF WHAT ART CAN BE. HIS IMPACT HAS TRANSFORMED THE ART WORLD AND CHANGED THE WAY WE LOOK AT TELEVISION.
CRAIG FITZPATRICK, VOA-TV.
To see some of Nam June Paik’s video art go to:
