Nam June Paik, Li Tai Po, 1987, 10 antique wooden TV cabinets, 1 antique radio cabinet, antique Korean printing block, antique Korean book, 11 color TVs, 96 by 62 by 24 inches. Photo John Bigelow Taylor.
This focused retrospective makes the case that Nam June Paik (1932-2006), often called the “father of video art,” was more like a tech oracle who anticipated everything from the Information Super Highway to Google Glass with his electronic sculptures. But Paik’s avant-garde vision extended beyond Silicon Valley’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra: he wanted to do good, creative and erotic things with the new mediums. Humanoid robot sculptures, made from old-fashioned television monitors, and human-machine hybrid works like TV Bra for a Living Sculpture (1975), exemplify the artist’s self-professed quest to find “new, imaginative and humanistic ways of using our technology.”