akive

Seven years have passed since the death of Paik Nam-june, the Korean-American avant-garde artist considered widely as the father of video art, but his influence is stronger than ever because his presence is as ubiquitous as ever.

It’s perhaps fitting that YouTube, the world’s top online video destination, now seems to be the main vehicle delivering Paik’s works to a global audience. Just type in Paik’s name in the search box and the website will instantly round up more than 2,000 video clips.

Perhaps, the link between Paik and YouTube is as obvious as it is familiar. It was Paik who predicted that everyone would have their own channel someday, and this came true with the creation of YouTube a year before his death in 2005.

This was a point not missed by Telegraph journalist Mark Hudson who was reminded of Paik through the immense success of Korean rapper Psy and his “Gangnam Style” — currently the most-viewed YouTube video ever.

According to Hudson, Psy was “an exemplar indeed of the postmodern, multi-disciplinary approach that is de rigueur now, but seemed novel when Paik pioneered it in the early ’60s.”

As Paik’s works continue to gain in relevancy as time moves further from his death, the Nam June Paik Art Center (NJP Art Center) in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, is presenting two exhibitions to shed new light on his creations and what influenced them.

While the program does feature imaginative videos — equally neat and off-puttingly blunt — and large installations of televisions Paik was known for, it also notably highlights some of his works that were straightforward as political commentary.

On the first floor of the art center, an exhibit titled “Gentle Disturbance — Talking Paik” introduces some of Paik’s more politically provocative pieces. These are balanced with the “Tireless Refrain” exhibition on the second floor that features the work of 10 artists inspired by Paik and motivated by political and social issues.

Among the must-see items in the exhibition is Paik’s 1977 video “Guadalcanal Requiem” on the first floor. Musician Charlotte Moorman is seen playing her cello before the screen is crosscut with footage of battles between American and Japanese soldiers on Guadalcanal Island during World War II. The repetitive images double as a straightforward criticism of war and violence and rumination of the political and social role of artists.

Jean-Paul Fargier’s documentary “Play it Again, Nam” shows how Paik’s work and radical beliefs were influenced by Karl Marx and Arnold Schoenberg and also traces his talent back to his childhood, featuring some of the songs he composed then.

Paik’s sexually-themed works such as “Young Penis Symphony” and “Chronicle of a Beautiful Paintress (dedicated to Alison Knowles)” were considered direct attacks on the established hierarchy of the art world.

Paik’s aim was similar in 1967 when he staged “Opera Sextronique” in New York, featuring Moorman playing her instrument while wearing a bikini made of light bulbs. She was arrested during the performance for going topless. The incident is remembered in a video shot by Jud Yalkut, which is played at the current exhibit.

Moorman was undeniably Paik’s muse and he paid tribute to her through his work 1972 work “TV Bed,” during a time when the cellist was in poor health coming off cancer surgery.

In the “Tireless Refrain” exhibition on the second floor, Francis Alys’ 2005 work “The Green Line: Sometimes Doing Something Poetic Can Become Political and Sometimes Doing Something Political Can Become Poetic,” a commentary on the conflicts between Israel and Arab nations, stands out.

The Green Line refers to the tentative demarcation line between Israel and its neighboring countries after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, named after the green ink used to mark the lines on the map.

Alys walked along the demarcation line in person with a bucket of leaking green paint, and interviewed 11 people who have different stances about it. Alys questions what could his quiet and poetic movement could do in the troubled region.

Kim Beom’s video “Painting ‘Yellow Scream’” is an instruction of how to paint an abstract painting bearing the emotion of horror.

The host screams onto the canvas while painting as if putting his energy into the yellow paint, but the disjunction between seriousness and lightness of his behavior rather makes viewers laugh. The actual “Yellow Scream” painting is also on display, but it is hard to read the undertone explained in the video from the painting.

Korean artist duo Mixrice, composed of Yang Chul-mo and Jo Ji-eun, has dealt with the issue of migration for more than 10 years and their works range from photography and video to performance and mural.

But instead of arguing for their rights and problems, the duo continuously conveys a message from the minority community and demonstrates the sustainable political nature of art.

Song Sang-hee displayed daily objects such as glassware and radios in a small, dimly lit room, but revealing their origins could bring a sensation of fear to viewers. Uranium glass bowls of “Christmas Dinner Table” are not produced anymore due to the fear of radioactivity and “Radio” plays socialist revolutionary songs as if they are peaceful classical music.

The artist’s act of collecting makes the viewers reflect on the withering of memories and fast-changing society.

Meanwhile, Paik’s works will be internationally displayed once again this summer, as a retrospective exhibit organized by NJP Art Center “Nam June Paik Frequency” has been invited to the Edinburgh International Festival from August to October.

The admission fee is 4,000 won for adults and 2,000 won for students. For more information, visit www.njpartcenter.kr or call (031) 201-8512.


By Kwon Mee-yoo


http://koreatimes.co.kr