Nam June Paik as ‘The Communicator’ takes spotlight in New York

Installation view of "Nam June Paik: The Communicator" at the Korean Cultural Center New York / Courtesy of Korean Cultural Center New York

“My interest lies in the entire world. For me, every day is a matter of communication.”

So declared Nam June Paik (1932-2006), the trailblazing pioneer of video art.

In Paik’s prescient mind — one that foresaw the coming of the information age and the hyper-connected global village — art was never a stationary, self-contained field. Rather, it was a participatory site of super-connectivity where analog met digital, East met West and traditions conversed with modernity.

This is the spirit that animates the new exhibition, “Nam June Paik: The Communicator,” at the Korean Cultural Center New York. Marking the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-45), the show is presented in collaboration with the Nam June Paik Art Center in Gyeonggi Province and the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation.

Installation view of "Nam June Paik: The Communicator" at the Korean Cultural Center New York / Courtesy of Korean Cultural Center New York

Nam June Paik's "Untitled" (2000) / Courtesy of Nam June Paik Art Center

The artist’s works, buzzing and radiant, sought nothing less than the liberation of the senses through technology — a freedom unbound by time, space or ideology.

On view are 25 video installations and TV robot sculptures from the Nam June Paik Art Center’s collection, including the centerpiece, “Rehabilitation of Genghis Khan.”

First unveiled at the 1993 Venice Biennale, where Paik received the Golden Lion, the work reimagines the legendary Genghis Khan as a warrior of the 20th century traversing a new, immaterial Silk Road: the “electronic superhighway.” In this vision, the tools of domination no longer lie in territory and conquest, but in software, information and above all, communication.

The exhibition also gathers a handful of the video art pioneer’s seldom-seen two-dimensional works. Free-spirited drawings across the pages of The New York Times and Hankook Ilbo, together with acrylic paintings reminiscent of television sets, offer yet another glimpse into his boundless creative odyssey.

In dialogue with his oeuvre is emerging Korean artist Kim Areum’s “The Car Toward the Future,” a piece rooted in her conviction that technology must be guided toward love and coexistence.

“The Communicator” runs through Nov. 22 in New York.