Smithsonian American Art Museum
Paik Exhibition
Merce/Digital, Merce by Merce by Paik, and Family of Robot: Baby
Nam June Paik: Global Visionary opens to the public today at 11:30 a.m.! This exhibition is a celebration of Paik's work - including key artworks from his career as well as items drawn from the Nam June Paik Archive that give insight into his creative process. A slideshow of works from the exhibition is available on our website, and photos of the installation are posted to Flickr.

Paik Random Access
Random Access
Paik's work is innovative, complex, fascinating, and fun. One of my favorite pieces is Random Access, in which strips of audio tape are glued to the wall. Random excerpts from Paik's early audio work can be heard by rubbing the head of an audiotape machine over the different sections of tape. (Keep an eye on our calendar for opportunities to see this artwork in action. In the meantime, watch a time-lapse video of Random Access being installed on our YouTube channel.) I also love Paik's series of TV Crowns, in which he manipulated the inner workings of televisions to display patterns in response to signals from audio generators. He was experimenting with technology as an artists' medium in a way that no other artist had done before. (Learn more about TV Crown in an interview on our blog with Michael Mansfield, associate curator of film and media arts.) And then there are the robots! One of Paik's goals was to humanize technology, and he did so in his TV robots by creating familiar, human shapes from televisions and other pieces of consumer technology. There are several robots in the exhibition including  Untitled (Robot) from the Archive, which we have brought to life on Twitter under the handle @PaikBot.

Nam June Paik: Global Visionary is on view at the American Art Museum until August, 11, 2013.

Nam June Paik: Global Visionary - Exhibition Trailer
Nam June Paik: Global Visionary - Exhibition Trailer

Hope you can visit!

Georgina
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Image Credits
Nam June Paik, Merce/Digital, 1988, single-channel video sculpture with vintage television cabinets and fifteen monitors; color, silent, Collection of Roselyne Chroman Swig,  

Nam June Paik in collab. w/ Charles Atlas, Merce Cunningham, and Shigeko Kubota, Merce by Merce by Paik, 1975/78, single-channel video; color, sound, Nam June Paik Estate, Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York

Nam June Paik, Family of Robot: Baby, 1986, Single-channel video sculpture with television casing, thirteen television monitors, and aluminum armature; color, silent, The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Society for Contemporary Art

Nam June Paik, Random Access, 1963/2000, strips of audiotape, open-reel audio deck, extended playback head, and speakers installation dimensions variable; approximately 96 x 120 x 20 inches, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive Committee Members: Ann Ames, Edythe Broad, Henry Buhl, Elaine Terner Cooper, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Harry David, Gail May Engelberg, Ronnie Heyman, Dakis Joannou, Cindy Johnson, Barbara Lane, Linda Macklowe, Peter Norton, Willem Peppler, Denise Rich, Simonetta Seragnoli, David Teiger, Ginny Williams and Elliot K. Wolk, 2001

Artwork (c) Nam June Paik Estate
Smithsonian American Art Museum
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, D.C. 20013
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