SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS Special Exhibition Nam June Paik’s City: from New York to Seoul
Period/ 2019.09.21(Sat) ~ 2019.12.19(Thu)
Venue/ SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS
SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS Special Exhibition
Nam June Paik’s City: from New York to Seoul
Nam June Paik’s City: from New York to Seoul
■ Overview
◎Exhibition
: Nam June Paik’s City: from New York to Seoul
◎Period
: September 21, 2019 (Sat) – December 19, 2019 (Thu)
◎Venue
: SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS
◎Artist
: Nam June Paik
◎Work
: Suite 212 (1975/1977)
◎Co-organized
: by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Nam June Paik Art Center
◎Curated
: by Sang Ae Park (Archivist, Nam June Paik Art Center)
■ Introduction
Nam June Paik’s City: from New York to Seoul, co-organized by Seoul Metropolitan Government and Nam June Paik Art Center, presents Suite 212(1975/1977). This exhibition screens Paik’s videos at SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS located in Malli-dong Plaza from September 21 to December 19, 2019. Suite 212(1975/1977) comprising 30 short videos, features New York in the 1970’s in forms of electronic collage. Selected 13 units of video held by Nam June Paik Art Center Video Archives shall be screened from 18:00 to 23:00 every evening. Suite 212 where Paik captured New York’s buildings, people, culture, scenery, and history in electronic collage shall be screened in the center of Seoul at 40-year intervals and juxtapose two metropolitan cities. We hope that this exhibition provides viewers with spatial as well as temporal experience by recognizing differences of fragmented views on two metropolitan cities, in the video on SEOULLO MEDIA CANVAS and the real-time daily environment, respectively.
■ Screening works
| Package | nr | Title | Year | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | Suite 212: Lindsay | 1975 | 4:21 |
| 2 | Suite 212: Chinese Noodle | 1975 | 4:02 | |
| 3 | Suite 212: Skates | 1974 | 4:12 | |
| 4 | Suite 212: Tibetan Museum | 1974 | 4:47 | |
| 5 | Suite 212: Wards Island | 1975 | 4:19 | |
| 6 | Suite 212: Grand Central | 1975 | 3:13 | |
| B | 7 | Suite 212: Fashion Avenue | 1975 | 3:02 |
| 8 | Suite 212: Seaport Museum | 1975 | 3:03 | |
| 9 | Suite 212: American Indian | 1974 | 5:34 | |
| 10 | Suite 212: Washington Square | 1975 | 5:09 | |
| 11 | Suite 212: City Island | 1975 | 4:42 | |
| 12 | Suite 212: Ansonia House | 1975 | 2:47 | |
| 13 | Suite 212: Richmond Town | 1975 | 5:32 |
Works include in Package B shall be screened daily at 19:05, 21:05 for 30 minutes during the exhibition period.
All videos are courtesy of Nam June Paik Art Center Video Archives.
■ Screened Artwork
Nam June Paik Suite 212 (1975/1977)
Suite 212 is Paik’s single-channel video work produced at TV LAB, which was an experimental video workshop hosted by WNET/Channel 13, New York. It is a series of video works titled after the area code of New York City, 212. Each video, from 3 minutes to 8 minutes duration, was broadcast in every night in the month of April 1975 via WNET/Channel 13. In this work, Paik shows snapshots of New York in his unique pleasant view. Short video works which titled after their topics as a subtitle, symbolizes New York in the 1970’s. Each video work is manipulated the forms and colors using video synthesizer. Images in the video is repeated and overlapped. Classical musics, jazz, or daily noises are inserted as background sound. Nam June Paik collaborated with his colleagues including John Godfrey, Douglas Davis, Jud Yalkut, Fred Barzyk, David Atwood and among other, in order to create this work.Nam June Paik Suite 212: Lindsay (1975) color, sound, 4min 21sec
Linsay, featuring John Lindsay(1921-2000) a former New York City mayor, edits Lindsay’s address in 1965. John Lindsay had served as New York city major for 8 years, from 1966 to 1973. Lindsay left a legacy in the development of the Arts in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan. Paik visualizes the symbolic meaning as a New York city major by synthesizing the images of Lindsay and mixing electronic sound and Lindsay’s voice.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Chinese Noodle (1975) color, sound, 4min 02sec
Chinese Noodle features New York’s multi-cultural aspects. It starts with footage of a Chinese chef who makes hand-made noodles with cheerful electronic music mix and presents confectionary images from Little Italy with synthesizing effects in the end. Editing culinary images from China Town and Little Italy, both are located in southern area of Manhattan, Paik shows exotic food culture in Manhattan.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Skates (1974) color, sound, 4min 12sec
Ice link in the Central Park in Manhattan opens in every winter. Images of skating, high-rise buildings, and ice links in the park are overlapped and repeated. The unique scenery of New York in the winter can be captured in Skates.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Tibetan Museum (1974) color, sound, 4min 47sec
Featuring the Tibetan Museum in Staten Island, Tibetan Museum presents symbolic images of the Orientalism with the sound of chanting. Images of a group of candles, Buddha, and manipulated scanning lines are overlapped and repeated. With the pleasant background music, the edited images express an homage to the Orientalism.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Wards Island (1975) color, sound, 4min 19sec
Wards Island, located in the East River, connects to the East Harlem through pedestrian bridge and is located in the south of Bronx. Bronx and Harlem is another multi-cultural element of Manhattan, contributes New York’s unique cultural characteristic. Juxtaposing views of Wards Island and dances of international performance group, Wards Island shows New York’s rich cultural and natural resources.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Grand Central (1975) color, sound, 3min 13sec
Grand Central features a Grand Central station connecting Manhattan and other towns in New York State. Grand Central, overlapping images of people in rush-hour and solarized clock images, symbolizes busy and exhausted city life.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Fashion Avenue (1975) color, sound, 3min 02sec
The 7th Avenue in New York city is famous for fashion and called as Fashion Avenue. Fashion Avenue edits photographs of fashion commercials with pop music. The commercial characteristic of this area ends with narration on clubs located in the 8th Avenue. Fashion Avenue sees the commercialism of New York.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Seaport Museum (1975) color, sound, 3min 03sec
Seaport Museum features a seaport near the South Street in New York city. Traditional dance performances and seaport scenery are synthesized. In spite of the fact that Manhattan is an island, people in the New York city sometimes forget this fact. Scenery adjoining the Atlantic reminds audience of the fact that Manhattan is an island.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: American Indian (1974) color, sound, 5min 34sec
Starting with performance of a Native Indian woman, who sings American Indian folk music playing the wood drum, American Indian overlaps images of various of traditional masks and synthesized performance images. With mixed classical music and Navajo love song, natural scenery of New York is presented. It ends as Navajo love song trails away.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Washington Square (1975) color, sound, 5min 09sec
Washington Square comprises interviews with people in the Washington Square Park in New York city. Douglas Davis interviewed with people under various topics. Interviews cover quotation of a movie line, missionary, marriage and among other topics. This work synthesizes and edits footage of interviews in a speedy way. We can meet New Yorkers in the 1970’s in this work.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: City Island (1975) color, sound, 4min 42sec
City Island edits scenery of City Island, near Bronx, with piano sound. A lyrical countryside is displayed in synthesized images of seaside. The only public transportation getting to this 100-year old fishing village is bus. The limited public transportation might keep the lyrical scenery from the cityscape.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Ansonia House (1975) color, sound, 2min 47sec
The Ansonia is a building located in upper west side of Manhattan. It is a historic building and used to be a home for famous musicians. Alan Schulman’s cello performance is presented with synthesized images. Ansonia House is an homage to locality of the area near the Lincoln Center, the center of a classical music in New York city.
Nam June Paik Suite 212: Richmond Town (1975) color, sound, 5min 32sec
The Historic Richmond Town is the local town in Staten Island, where various immigrants have lived since the 18th century. It was designated as a historic town in 1958, to preserve traditional life style and custom. Richmond Town shows scenery of the Historic Richmond Town with rhythmical jazz music. The jazz is edited in fast-forward and finally changed to classical music, and images are changed to sunset and gas light in the evening simultaneously. The edited images of Richmond Town with mixed music presents a day in the historic town.
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