Paik

Nam June Paik, 1932-2006.

The New York Times printed/posted a nice appreciation of Paik, who died Sunday, Jan. 29, in Miami Beach. (There are worse places from which to pass on.)

In the heyday of Fluxus, Paik was one of the crazier avant-garde buggers out there. His "Creep into the vagina of a living whale" is aptly notorious. In reaction to Paik, John Cage reportedly wondered whether he had had any entirely savory influence on the younger genertaion.

Paik got hooked on the technology of television and created a series of works involving TV screens. The more famous involved cellist Charlotte Moorman, often in some state of undress. Below is the classic "TV Bra for Living Sculpture" (1969). Beyond the wackiness, Paik seems to have been clued in to some very significant realizations concerning how television was rewiring our brains and skewing what little sense of the great high/low divide was still left. After skimming the gallery at his studio website, I'm particularly fond of "Video-Buddha" from 1976 (above).