Quantcast
pixel

Vantag 5 – Nam June Paik and the electronic super highway!

2008.04.17
this is my piece called "Internet dweller:iwuh.four.hsts" (read below, after the photos, the text I've written with the explainations of this post)

the poster from the exhibition in Portugal

as part of the piece, there is a laser disk player and more importantly - since this is videoart - a laser disk! :)

huge old radio box

can you see the face of the internet dweller: the eyes and the mouth are hidden tv sets showing the video done by Paik; then you have the ears as computer motherboards of the prehistoric kind and even hair "à la Bart Simpson" on the top :)

as the laser disk is played so the images change at super speed on the tv screens



there are neons too


cover of the book from Expo'98 where this piece was shown!


"you're so vain..." :)



entrance to the exhibition at Expo'98 Festival dos 100 dias



and this is how it was shown there

crazy environment :)




and now some more images from that laser disk






















is this home? or an art gallery? or a clothes shop?

PAIK'94




Nam June Paik and the electronic super highway


I have been a fan of Paik’s work since I first saw one of his pieces; it was from the later more constructivist phase where video art was incorporated in huge frames, usually big old radio boxes. Then there was a fabulous exhibition in Portugal and I bought one of his works from the “Internet dweller” series. At that time I didn’t spend so much time in the internet as I do now… so maybe this purchase was premonitory! :)
Not even the institution that hosted the show bought any piece, so it was without surprise that soon after I had it home, it was invited to be part of the exhibition “Viagem ao século XX – a walk through the century” at Expo’98.

(use the tag “galeriavantag” to see other posts I have made about the exhibitions in this art gallery)

Below are some links to investigate further about PAIK and texts taken from those sites. I will be making some more posts about Paik in the future.
(J. C.)


PAIK site
http://www.paikstudios.com


Nam June Paik's journey as an artist has been truly global, and his impact on the art of video and television has been profound. To foreground the creative process that is distinctive to Paik's artwork, it is necessary to sort through his mercurial movements, from Asia through Europe to the United States, and examine his shifting interests and the ways that individual artworks changed accordingly. It is my argument that Paik's prolific and complex career can be read as a process grounded in his early interests in composition and performance. These would strongly shape his ideas for mediabased art at a time when the electronic moving image and media technologies were increasingly present in our daily lives. In turn, Paik's work would have a profound and sustained impact on the media culture of the late twentieth century; his remarkable career witnessed and influenced the redefinition of broadcast television and transformation of video into an artist's medium.


more on Paik
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/02.29.96/paik-9609.html


More interesting are the various Internet Dwellers--giant heads that Paik has fashioned out of his trademark materials of vintage TV cabinets and all kinds of technological junk. They are designed to resemble the masks associated with various indigenous cultures; the eyes and mouth, naturally, are filled with fleeting video images. These heads both play on and subvert the instinctive identification we have with a recognizable human face, while making a sly commentary on just what now constitutes "primitive" art.
The individual titles are mock Internet addresses that Paik created using the initials of his friends around the world. Internet Dweller: lwuh.four.hsts, the facial apertures flashing 1960s couture and a no-drinking symbol, shows that for all his playfulness, Paik pays serious attention to aesthetic detail. The elegant curves of the inlaid wood cabinet are reiterated in the rolls of laser-printed canvas set into the speaker wells and the plastic tubes with blinking lights that crown the head.


further Paik
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-18627288.html


Paik's ironic celebration of the electronic superhighway - through his joke about his minibus, and through his installation representing futuristic information institutions such as schools (Warez Academy, 1994), town halls (Cyberforum, 1994), post offices (E-mail vs Snail Mail), and video stores (Video Server) - offers no incisive, compelling examples of how the received form and content of future communications, per se, will be an improvement over the present. What, in fact, is the psychological, social and political content of those futuristic institutions? What will be taught, debated, mailed or watched that we should celebrate and work toward now? That is what avant-garde art needs to be exploring. In spite of the attractiveness and ingeniousness of much of this show, it offers no answers to those questions. Paik's work does not answer the dilemma of postmodernism; it does not suggest a way out of its own current entrapment between the extremes of the inflated critical claims, that encourage continuation of artistic accumulation, and the hard critical questions that would demand lean and mean forays into new territory. That - paradoxically enough, given the anti-museumization argument that has been directed against Paik - is perhaps why this extremely impressive museumization of video art is traveling the interstates between the coasts.(19)




35 Comments
Primavera Yes!My favorite Nam June Paik piece!Great post here!!! :)))))

“Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life.”
(Nam June Paik)
Primavera · 2008-04-17: 12:27
JaCkYe Epá..... descobri uma coisa nova hoje..... nem sequer imaginava tamanha maquineta:D Grande post sim senhora :)Parabéns... É verdade será que dá para passar imagens da pocahontas....
JaCkYe · 2008-04-17: 12:33
Cabecilha Jackye :)

claro que dá... desde que seja em laser disk! Eu tenho mais alguns e por isso já passou por exemplo filmes do Woody Allen mas sem som... :))
Cabecilha · 2008-04-17: 12:36
Cabecilha Prima V :)

obrigado por colocares o Paik em discurso directo! :)
Cabecilha · 2008-04-17: 12:39
peregol Beautiful set!!!
peregol · 2008-04-17: 13:20
flipado this is ART!! OUR KIND OF ART!!

and Paik will always be an honorary member of our team! :)
flipado · 2008-04-17: 13:22
RozariaS wow this is a lot of work on this post!!

I've been lucky enough because i've seen this piece up close and it is trully amazing! :)

Paik was a visionary!
RozariaS · 2008-04-17: 13:26
felipeadiers Very cool!
felipeadiers · 2008-04-17: 13:29
americo Paik was an amazing flipado artist: that's why I love his work and this piece in particular! :-)
americo · 2008-04-17: 13:49
davidcardona A plenty of colors and light superb post! Thank you dear friend!

davidcardona · 2008-04-17: 13:53
PAWELvelMUHA nice nice nice my friend ! as always amazing !
PAWELvelMUHA · 2008-04-17: 14:34
perfectionist ;)
perfectionist · 2008-04-17: 16:03
chrisfly Wow, that is amazing!!
chrisfly · 2008-04-17: 16:23
mintra Beautiful post.
:)
mintra · 2008-04-17: 16:56
miclaud very complex...
miclaud · 2008-04-17: 20:31
leocheung Interesting.
leocheung · 2008-04-17: 21:27
openbelarus interesting
openbelarus · 2008-04-18: 11:32
yamaleekis Interesante reportaje. :))))))))
yamaleekis · 2008-04-18: 18:59
tessyworld Very interesting post!
tessyworld · 2008-04-19: 14:50
Madoc Wow! This is so modern! ; )
Seriously this post was very interesting, and that man is creatively crazy!
Madoc · 2008-04-20: 00:03
<