Visiting the exhibition, I had done no research on the artist in advance so I was able to take in all the information with little awareness of the Paik’s work. The one installation that had drawn me in was the TV Garden (1974-77) which was right at the beginning of the exhibition. The dark room filled with various TV monitors among a forest of green palm plants was so engaging to me. The bright moving images on the numerous screens displaying a mixture of Japanese adverts, Nigerian dance performances to the sound of poem recitals and classical music. This introduction prepared me for the sensory overload of technology, sound and moving image that I was going to experience for the rest of the 12 roomed exhibition.
Within the first room I was able to grasp a sense of the main themes of Paik’s work throughout the years of his artistic life. When observing TV Buddha (1974) I learnt about his fascination with Zen Buddhism and the belief that everything in life is integrated and connected. Again in his piece Robot-K456 (1964) the radio controlled robot made up of TV boxes could be seen as an attempt to unite humans with technology; with the ability to walk, talk and even go to the toilet, Paik making a point that we are closer to technology than we think.
Growing up in an age when technology had only just been acknowledged by consumers, Paik grew up in an unusually contemporary household. Born in Seoul in 1932, his family fled to Japan and moved into a western style house and owned a TV which his neighbours would gather round to come and watch. It would make sense that Paik’s fascination with moving image and technology derived from this early introduction of modern technology. Being aware of this information gives more understanding of TV Garden as it demonstrates how nature and technology should be embraced in co-existing.
From a young age Paik studied classical music and piano; after graduating from university in Tokyo began to combine his knowledge in classical and music and his artistic expression with pieces such as Zen for Wind (1963) which consists of random objects having from sisal string to imitate a wind chime effect.
After moving to West Germany in 1957, Paik met life long collaborators and friends, John Cage and Joseph Beuys who had an integral influence in Paik’s work. Joining the Fluxus movement in the early 1960s, marked a turn in the artist’s development as his work became more performative. As an act of anarchy in regards to his past education, Paik encouraged the demolition of a piano; an impromptu performance by cohort Beuys which Paik then put on display.
As the Fluxus movement advanced, the group of artists including George Maciunas (founder of Fluxus) and Charlotte Moorman contributed to Paik’s element of surprise and spontaneity in his performances. An example of this is the piece with Moorman is the Variations on a Theme by Saint-Saens (1969) in which Moorman is sat playing the cello when mid performance, climbs a ladder up to an oil drum full of water and submerges herself fully clothed before exiting and continuing the musical performance. The two artists collaborated intensely over the 30 years; much of their work was focussed on integrating sexualisation of classical music which was displayed in these avant-garde performances.
An element of the exhibition that I admired was the interactive nature of the pieces. The part of the exhibition that displayed Paik’s work with magnets, there was a machine that visitors could use to trace across magnetic strips on the wall which would generate various different soundwaves. This point of the exhibition marked Paik’s experimental work with distortion and how technology and media should be used to communicate cultural messages to the audience.
Paik demonstrated a very accurate vision of the future concerning technology and communication. Some of my favourite pieces included the Sistine Chapel (1993) and Internet Dream (1994). Paik called his prediction of the future the ‘Electronic Superhighway’. This described a vision of the future of technology and the connection of people on a global scale which was demonstrated in Internet Dream, consisting of a wall of TV screens, each one a moving image that made up a whole picture.
The finale piece that summed up the exhibition was the perfect conclusion to Paik’s artistic career. Originally made up of 42 projectors, Sistine Chapel (1963) is a sensory overload consisting of a collage of video clips all played at once displaying Paik’s past work, collaborators and friends. The visuals and sounds are overwhelming whilst being invigorating and you can’t help but have a sense of pride for Paik’s achievements as a revolutionary artist of his time.