![]() ![]() Collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “To liberate people from the tyranny of TV” Nam June Paik, Zen for TV, 1963, reconstructed 1990. This contraption consists of two three-inch cathode ray tube TVs held together by a translucent vinyl strap, and was worn by the cellist Charlotte Moorman - one of Paik’s most important collaborators - in several “topless” performances. Similarly, TV Bra for Living Sculpture, 1969 humanises technology, playfully placing the body in a hybrid relationship with what Paik called “cybernated art”. Collection of the Estate of Nam June Paik. Nam June Paik, TV Bra for Living Sculpture, 1969. With the figures affectionately titled Grandfather and Grandmother, Paik invites us to consider how telecommunications have transformed social structures, beginning with the traditional family unit. In the first gallery, radio cabinets and TV sets are assembled to form a vaguely humanoid Family of Robot, 1986. ![]() Image courtesy of National Gallery Singapore. “The cathode ray tube will replace the canvas.” Nam June Paik, Family of Robot: Grandfather, Grandmother, 1986. “I say paper is dead, except for toilet paper,” Paik deadpanned. But these boxy TVs were once, too, futuristic gizmos signifying the advent of a new age.Īmid the social upheavals of the 1960s, Paik saw technology’s capacity to alter the fabric of everyday life, and he critically responded to this by transforming TVs, radios, synthesisers - you name it - into artistic media. Coming from a century where flatscreen TVs and ultra-thin tablets are the norm, Paik’s world might look a little like an antique roadshow. The first thing you’ll notice is Paik’s obsession with TV sets, which fill the halls in all shapes, sizes and configurations. Rather than a strictly linear framework, the sections mark, “sites of concentration” - as senior curator June Yap puts it - within Paik’s practice. These include milestone events (such as Paik’s debut solo exhibition), technological experiments (robots, synthesisers), collaborative ventures, and points of influence (Fluxus, Asian aesthetics). The exhibition follows a loosely chronological structure consisting of 11 sections. With more than 180 works, this retrospective spans 5 decades of Paik’s art, occupying the Singtel Special Exhibition Gallery and the Basement Concourse. It’s the biggest blockbuster exhibition to hit town since Minimalism: Space. Previously presented at the Tate Modern in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, The Future is Now makes its first and last stop in Asia here at the Gallery. Paik’s pioneering aesthetics and his uncanny foresight take centre stage at the National Gallery Singapore’s latest exhibition, Nam June Paik: The Future is Now. Decades before the World Wide Web, Paik coined the term “electronic superhighway” in 1974, predicting a global, virtual, borderless sphere where we would all be connected by high-speed technology. It’s amazing that Paik’s vision hardly seems out of place today, considering how the artist, who was born nearly a century ago in 1932, worked not with iPhones but with Portapaks, synthesisers, and analog TVs. What do Nam June Paik’s art and TikTok have in common? Quite a bit, it seems: chaotically-spliced everyday imagery, rapid-fire video transitions, dizzying camera movements, snazzy jingles, and an irreverent sense of humour.
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