Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Nam June Paik at Tate Modern



You can take a trip down the information superhighway of olde with Nam June Paik at Tate Modern - why not? Bound to be entertaining - and it is. Funny how, despite being lumbered with the 'Godfather of Video Art' (or whatever they say) title, the robots are lovable retro-futurist as opposed to sleek examples of up-to-date tech advancement - guess his Fluxus roots show through - and they do throughout the exhibition, literally in one corridor filled with posters and papers....see the Symphony below (for ten members). 







...this cabinet of stuff from his studio was a highlight...


...spotted some mail art from Ray Johnson...



...now we're all interconnected Nam June Paik's pieces look like quaint artefacts from the pre-smartphone/PC world, which in a sense they are, but it was a better vision, a humane, often comedic vision as opposed to the dry conceptual claptrap artists can make out of using technology today. 'What's on the telly?' We used to ask. Paik showed us what could be on the telly and how the telly could be art. 


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