LASER CONE

NAN JUNE PAIK





I woke early for a long day of train journeys. Nam June Paik retrospective was put on by Tate Liverpool and FACT. It was the first of its kind since the 80's in U.K.Paik is well known as one of the founders of video art. Between the two sites there was a career that spanned from the early thirties up until his death in 2006.He was accomplished pianist and was influenced by avant garde composers like John Cage and Stockhausen in his earlier career. He gained his reputation through the Fluxus movement pioneering techniques in video. The work at the retrospective was representative of all aspects of his work including even early musical scores. A lot of his more famous pieces like Zen for TV' (1963) and TV Bra for Living Sculpture (1969) were at the Tate. Whilst the Tate did boast most of the work it was all a bit loose. Paik is not as well known in this country as he might be in Germany and America. As I wondered round the Tate it left me wanting a bit more for my £5 charge.There didn't seem to be any cohesion of how the work was displayed. Having not known much about him before the visit other than he was video artist it left me wondering why things like a stretched up canvas with holes in were been displayed. There wasn't much explanation either. My friend Monty had the benefit of an audio tour he said it was very informative. I can imagine it filled in a lot of the gaps that the blurbs didn't elaborate on.



FACT on the other hand was fantastic however having been there first thing in the morning. It was a bit of an anti-climax to get to the Tate later on. FACT hosted the amazing laser cone which blew my mind. I laid down and watched the beautiful cone for nearly an hour. It was interesting to see peoples reaction to it. Well, I say see I could see nothing but the cone but I could hear people chatting away.. 'how mint it would be in a club' or how 'good it would be on LSD. There was a real buzz about the piece. Things like that really intrigue me about art. Believing there’s nothing more that can be done that is new. It seems the only real art for our time is a humanistic one that just has a simple idea for people to grasp and relate to. Considering FACT was free it was amazing in comparison. Upstairs it had a number of his video work were at your own leisure with a remote you could choose what you wanted to watch. All be it I didn't know what I was watching before I saw it but allowing you the freedom to chose was miles better than paying for constriction.

I caught the train back to Manchester then caught the train down to London for Kenetica Art Festival.....