Nam June Paik was a Korean-American artist who introduced advanced technology as an art form. He was considered the father of video art which he presented to the world for the first time in 1963 during his solo exhibition entitled “Exposition of Music-Electronic Television” in Germany.
Paik always tested the limits of technology in its application as an art form. He used to reconfigure mechanical devices, transforming them into works of art, such as his iconic robots. Now, eleven years after his death, one of his life-size sculptures is on view in New York City‘s Shin Gallery, in an exhibition entitled “The Legacy of Nam June Paik in the Post-Digital Era.”
The sculpture that stands eight feet tall consists of various cabinets, old televisions and disc players. It is being presented along the work of Greek artist Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos, who created a multi-channel sound installation, called “14 Degrees of Separation”. The contemporary digital artist composed her work by using 14 different speakers which have been scattered around the gallery. Through the speakers, a computer generated male voice recites passages from Homer’s Odyssey in 14 different languages. The ancient Greek text was translated with the help of Bingo, a popular online translation service.
Through her work, Kosmatopoulos wishes to commemorate Paik’s contribution to contemporary art forms, while at the same time touching the issue of the power and limitations of global communication and media in the post-modern society.
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