Nam June Paik Made Video Into a Modern Art Form
17 May 2011
Nam June Paik's "Electronic Superhighway"
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: I’m Shirley Griffith.
MARIO RITTER: And I’m Mario Ritter with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Nam June Paik is widely considered one of the first video artists. Today, video art is a rich and popular field in modern art. But in the nineteen sixties, the use of television and television images to make art was very new and revolutionary. Nam June Paik helped turn the moving image into a common tool for artists to use as a form of expression. Today his works can be seen in the permanent collections of museums around the world.
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SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One place to experience the art of Nam June Paik is at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. There, visitors can see several of his works. One is a huge neon and video sculpture called “Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii.” The sculpture was created in nineteen ninety-five. It is made up of three hundred thirty-six televisions, fifty DVD players, and over one hundred seventy meters of neon lighting.
The work measures about twelve meters wide and over four meters tall. The televisions and neon lighting form the shape of a map of the United States.
MARIO RITTER: Name June Paik used video imagery to represent each of the fifty states. For example, he chose to show parts of the movie “The Wizard of Oz” to represent the state of Kansas. Images from the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior are used to represent the state of Alabama. The many bright images move very quickly in a disorderly and energetic way. The sculpture shows how media images defined Nam June Paik’s understanding of the United States and its many cultural expressions.
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