Art Journal #32: Nam June Paik Art Center

I finally get to go to NJP Art Center. Its far from Seoul city center, 45 minutes. But it didnt disappoint at all. Paik is a true pioneer. One of quotes sums up how he set direction for his body of work: "Marcel Duchamp has already done everything there is to do - except video. He widened the entry but narrowed the exit. That very narrow door is video art and only through video art can we go beyond Marcel Duchamp".

I have never seen some many of his works in one go. He has done some really remarkable stuff. Of course there is the use of TVs as material for installation. And the videos he made where he described as "the videos wont be always interesting...but they wont be never interesting either". The exploration of technology in art - seen in his magnetic coil distorting TV images - is unprecedented; the "physics" of the work has always been there, but Paik brought it out and impressed that on his viewers.

His "TV Buddha" was fantastic - with its looping, Zen reflections - one of my favorites among his works. Apparently this is an accidental creation: shortly before one of his show openings, Pak had the idea of making a TV viewer out of an antique Buddha statue purchased as an investment. With a video cam, he set up the Buddha to watch his own videotaped image on the screen opposite; past and present gazes upon each other; East and West meets. The "Elephant Cart" with the sitting Buddha pulled by an elephant is an stunning installation, and makes me think of Bodhistiva traveling to spread his teachings - but this time on a cart of TVs.

But most of these I have seen one way or another. There's a piece I havent seen before. It's his performance with Charlotte Moorman, where he got naked and sat in front of Moorman to have his back "become her cello", making you focus on the position of everything - the strings which she placed on his back, the "cello" position (BTW this remains me of Wilson Shieh's recent prints of "music family"). The whole "Opera Sextronique" series of works is entirely rebellious, refreshing, contemporary, and classic at the same time. "TV Bra" where she bare herself with two TV screens covering her breasts is comical and in your face (and got them arrested while they do this on stage in a live musical performance). Which probably led to his other (infamous) statement: "Someday, entrance exam of Julliard will be decided not by the technique but by the size of breast".

Paik's connection to his homeland seems tenuous. He's born in Seoul but didn’t visit South Korea for 35 years after he and his family fled the Korean War in 1949 to Hong Kong and later Japan. But he did say in another statement: "as long as the spirit of bibimbap remains, we can have pride in the age of multimedia". It seems his Korean root is still dear to his heart afterall.

I guess this is how works from a true contemporary master should be like. They stand the test of time. They revolutionalise. They influence generations of artists that came after him. 100 years later, when people look back at his work, they will still say, this is contemporary, it provokes, and inspires.