Dimensions / 30.4×40.2cm
Medium / Black & white photograph on baryta paper

Taken by Manfred Montwé, this is a photograph of Nam June Paik in his first solo show Exposition of Music – Electronic Television held in Galerie Parnass in Wuppertal in March 1963. One of the phrases written in the exhibition’s poster was “instruments for Zen exercise” and this was related to installations in the boiler room of the basement. There were different pieces of tinware dangling together so that you could swing them to make a sound. There were also an empty suitcase and a transistor radio hanging from the ceiling and inviting you to sit below and feel the texture and movement of the objects. In the garden bush, you could listen to rattle, key, wooden doll, metal bolt, and sandal along a string whispering to each other by wind. Paik called this Zen for Wind, and also described the basement room as “similar to a torture chamber having an opposite function, and sitting on a chair there and placing my bag above, my head becomes cooled off” implying that this might be a kind of Zen practice.