Nam June Paik

When visiting the National Portrait Gallery in DC, the work of Nam June Paik stood out to me especially. His piled televisons on top of each other with various images dancing across the screens to convey a message, some of which were uncertain to me. One room had a wall of televisions and there was clear division between the images being played on the left and the right side of the wall. The televisions would all combine to make a colorful face or shifting shapes, then disperse into individal moving pictures. There was a small TV amidst all the relatively uniform sized TVs that was playing porn nonstop, and I thought that it could resemble the part of the human mind that is always occupied with sex. Another piece of work was a wall of televisons overlayed with neon lights bent to create the form of the United States. Under each state were videos that resembled stereotypical interests and values of the state. I thought this could represent America's strong preoccupation with the pop culture and television.

Information Superhighway

Paik's work is often controversial, since the 1960s he was pushing for sex to become more acceptable in art. His pieces arguably comment on our obsession with television and the surface-level interest in that which glitters. There also is a hint of alerting people to propaganda through brainwashing images in his work. Although he passed away in 2006 due to complications from a stroke 10 years earlier, his art continues to be marveled by people everywhere.

I thouroughly enjoyed looking at his work in the museum and I would love to see more of his pieces that I have heard about, like the televisions stacked to look like a cello with images of cellists on the screens. I can see myself drawing inspiriation from his creativity through the unusual use of modern technology to convey a message.

sources:
http://www.paikstudios.com/
http://s3files.core77.com/blog/images/7_dore.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nam_June_Paik