1. Nam June Paik
USA/Korea :1932, Seoul (Korea) - 2006, Miami (Florida, USA)
< Button Happening>, 1965, Video, 2min, b&w, silent |
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Button Happening is possibly Nam June Paik's first videotape ever, and certainly the earliest existing one. Recorded in 1965, on the day he acquired his first Sony Portapak camera, this previously unknown work was recently rediscovered and restored. Technically fragile due to being recorded on computer tape, this work documents a single action being performed — Paik buttoning and unbuttoning his jacket. The repetitious, unspectacular character of this everyday event enacted as a performance and documented reflects the underlying conceptual spirit of Fluxus humor. |
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< Lake Placid '80 >, 1980, 3:49 min, color, sound |
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Paik was commissioned to produce this exuberant, high-speed collage for the National Fine Arts Committee of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games. Densely layering movement and action, Paik created a visual and sound explosion combining images of Olympic sports events are mixed with his recurring visual and audio motifs: the dancers from Global Groove, Allen Ginsberg, the song Devil With a Blue Dress On. Footage of Ski jumpers, skaters and hockey players is re-edited, fragmented, colorized, accelerated and transformed, colliding on the screen in a frenzy of synthesized energy. Movements, time-frames and images shift in seemingly random, yet often ironic juxtapositions. Paik ends this hyperbolic paced "music video" ends with his own computer-graphic version of the Olympic logo superimposed over an image of a chanting Allen Ginsberg. |
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2.Dennis Oppenheim
USA : 1938, Electric City (Washington, USA) -
< Cones>, 2006, Installation, Plexiglas |
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One of Dennis Oppenheim main issues has been a rejection of traditional gallery exhibition spaces which he has addressed by locating his work into the landscape, be this natural or an urban. This expulsion of the artwork into the outside world has meant that the work is often developed through semi-scientific methods given that its duration and structure will be subject to the forces present in an environment that is not controlled in the same way as a gallery space. Oppenheim’s Cones are an example of how the artist also reconfigures the relationships established between objects and their surroundings through the use of scale. Blown up beyond all conventional proportions, the cones, usually banal orange space marking devices, take over the street as seemingly dangerous barricades.
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3.La Monte Young
USA : 1935, Bern (Idaho, USA) -
< #15 Composition Nr.15 for Bob Morris>, 1962, Score |
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La Monte Young’s Composition Nr 15 for Bob Morris which offers the simple instruction “Draw a straight line and follow it” was one of the most influential compositions of the 1960s. Published in diverse Flux Boxes and the first Fluxus book An Anthology – actually edited by La Monte Young in 1961 and published in 1963 – it became the base for many performances of the time. One of the most important instances of this composition being performed may have been Nam June Paik’s Zen for Head. Paik performed this score at the first Fluxus concert, the FLUXUS Festspiele Neuster Musik in Wiesbaden in 1962. Having studied with Cage and Stockhausen, La Monte Young, is possibly the “minimal musician” par excellence of his time and was influential to among others Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. His commitment to experimentation and his reluctance to record work have meant he often does not receive the public recognition he is due.
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4.Cory Arcangel
USA : 1978, Buffalo (New York, USA) -
< Video Painting>, 2008, Video installation |
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Cory Arcangel often explores the structure of the materials he appropriates to create his work. In the past this has ranged from hacking game cartridges and slowing things down to erasing everything but the clouds or slowing a game down to unbearable pace or erasing everything but the clouds, to using the very mechanics of a contemporary art for the Frieze Projects commission Ticket to Ride piece. In Video Painting, Cory Arcangel uses his knowledge of video and image synthesizing programs and machines – the first of which was invented by Nam June Paik- to create a film that combines the old and new technologies. These different tools - from the VHS Tape, to tape transfer, 3-D computer effects, Final Cut Pro, and editing techniques popular on YouTube – are eternalized on a unique VHS tape that ironically highlights the speed at which technology and obsolescence develop.
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5. Robert Breer
USA :1926, Detroit (Michigan, USA)
< Fist Fight>, 1964, 16㎜ film, 9min
<69 69>, 1969, 16㎜ film, 5min
<70 70>, 1970, 16㎜ film, 5min
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Robert Breer is a pioneering animator and filmmaker who experimented with film and animation techniques, including experiments with flipbooks that were informed by a deep knowledge of early cinema and cinematographic technologies. Breer entered film through painting in Paris in the early 1950s and after studying engineering at Stanford University his interests shifted to the mechanics of film and motion. European avant-garde movements influenced Breer’s films and some capture aspects of beat poetry and music in the fragmented collage aesthetic they present and in the way he often incorporated scenes and objects from everyday life and combined them through repetition, rhythm, and motion. Fist Fight was shown at the 1964 American Premier of Stockhausen’s Originale and Nam June Paik went on to use some of Breer’s images in his seminal Global Groove. |
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6. Xijing Men
- Gimhongsok : 1964, Seoul (Korea) -
- Tsuyoshi Ozawa : 1965, Tokyo (Japan) -
- Chen Shaoxiong :1962, Shantou (Guangdong, PR China) –
< PR China Beijing Olympics >, 2008, Installation
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Xijing Men consists of Gimhongsok, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, and Chen Shaoxiong, three artists who are developing the concept of Xijing (that is to say, a western capital to accompany the eastern, northern, and southern cities of Tokyo/Dongjing, Beijing, and Nanjing) and are rebuilding their imaginary city through a series of five projects, the first of which was a video installation that screened in Beijing, Guangzhou, Seoul, and Ireland. For Beijing Olympics, 2008, the artists traveled to the XX Olympic Games with their families to stage a daily sporting event in parallel to the competitions of the Beijing Olympics. With great friendly spirit the artists seem to capture the Olympic spirit better than the overly spectacular and controlled official games. |
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7. Taro Shinoda
Japan : 1964, Tokyo (Japan) -
< God Hand >2002, Installation |
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Taro Shinoda’s work God Hand is a huge machine, propelled by a jet engine. Despite its scale and power, the machine’s only purpose is to create a simple red line in the space. The central themes of Shinoda’s work often explore the concept of landscapes. This interest in both nature and science is visible in Shinoda’s works that often oscillate between extreme mechanic engineering art and a sublime beauty created through simplicity. Built both to arouse curiosity and inspire contemplation the immense works occupies the space as if it were about to punce at any second. |
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8. Santiago Sierra
1Spain : 1966, Madrid (Spain) -
< 8 Foot Line Tattooed on Six Remunerated People Espacio Aglutinador Havana>, 1999, Video installation |
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Santiago Sierra's 8 Foot Line Tattooed on Six Remunerated People Espacio Aglutinador Havana, 1999 is one of the most controversial works of the last decade. The artist paid six people in Havanna 30US$ to have a line tattooed on their back thereby alluding to the fact that people in the third world are ready to sacrifice their body for a minimal amount of money. Sierra’s action also points to disparate currency and wage situations that exist in the global world, especially in a place like Cuba, a country under American embargo. Another aspect addressed by the work is how tattoos are perceived differently in different societies: in parts of Asia it indicates belonging to a triad, in many Western countries it is a mere fashion statement, and in the Pacific Islands they indicate specific class strata.
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9. Fluxus
< Flux films>, 1964~9, 16㎜ films |
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In 1964 George Maciunas, the “chairman” of Fluxus asked artists associated with Fluxus to produce small films for a collection of Fluxfilms. Altogether 45 films were created and gathered. The 16mm rolls start with Nam June Paik’s seminal Zen for Film, 20 minutes of clear leader and includes important works by Maciunas, Mieko Shiomi, Robert Watts, Paul Sharits, Yoko Ono, Joe Jones, George Brecht and Wolf Vostell. Together with Andy Warhol’s 1962 films they are some of the best examples of not only early avant-garde cinema but also presentation of Fluxus ideas in different mediums.
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10. George Brecht
USA : 1926, New York (USA) – 2008, Cologne (Germany)
< VOID>, 1982, Objects |
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George Brecht’s Water Yam is a collection of over ninety different white cards with typed phrases proposing an object, thought or action: event scores. The concept of “event scores” arose from Brecht’s believe that 'experience in every dimension' could be highlighted and encapsulated in the shape of verbal scores structuring the space and time of his work while simultaneously inviting the participation of the audience in the piece. These event scores might result from the creation of an object or they might arise from the discovery of an object that Brecht would then create a score for. In this way the artist hoped to make evident the relationship between language and perception. In part inspired by John Cage, Brecht believed that “the details of everyday life, the random constellations of objects that surround us” should “stop going unnoticed”.
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11. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries + Takuji Kogo
- Marc Voge, USA
- Young-Hae Chang, Korea
- Takuji Kogo, Japan
Video installation |
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YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, or http://www.yhchang.com, has done work in 14 languages. It had a solo show for the inauguration of the New Museum, New York, that ended in March 2008, and a solo show at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) that ended in March 2009.
Takuji KOGO (b.1965 Japan)
organizes *CANDY FACTORY PROJECTS and he currently works as a director of The KITAKYUSHU BIENNIAL at Kitakyushu Japan since 2007.
*CANDY FACTORY PROJECTS is a platform for international collaborative art projects, produces artist books, audio works, web-based artworks,and original curatorial projects since 1998 in many different venues.
Recent curatorial projects includes KITAKYUSHU BIENNIAL '07,BOOGIE-WOOGIE WONDERLAND (AIAV, Yamaguchi Japan, 2003), SCREAM
(FARGFABRIKEN, Stockholm Sweden, 2004), Hyper Links for dead link(Hiroshima City Museum for Contemporary Art, 2006) and http://artonline.jp since 2006.
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12. Pak Sheung Chuen
Hong Kong : 1977, Fukien (China) -
< 2008 Film 2008>, 35㎜ film installation |
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“In a film, 1 second is 24 frames. Each frame is a picture. But when you watch 1 second of film, you are not only watching 24 frames of pictures. You also watch the blank spaces (the black bars) between the frames. We see the light, but we can’t see the darkness.
I cut out all the blank spaces from a film. And then, I join all these blank spaces back together into another “film”(a black film). This “film” is then projected on the wall by a film-projector. Through this process we are able to watch the “invisible part” of a film, the time that is traditionally considered inexistent.
The proportion of blank space and picture space in a frame (of that Hong Kong film) is 7:13. The “black film” on the wall and the film in the machine are both 383cm, and were cut from 23 seconds of film. During the exhibition this film will be shown on the first fifth minute of every hour. (Pak Sheung Chuen)
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13. Sue Tompkins
UK : 1971, Leighton Buzzard (UK) -
< Untitled>, 2008, Drawings |
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From 1999-2002 Sue Tompkins was the lead singer in Life Without Buildings, an art-rock band whose sound was compared to punk/new wave antecedents including The Fall, Patti Smith, or PiL. Tompkins own solo performance work explores the technique of incorporating borrowed texts, ranging from popular songs to personal narratives, into an abstract text that becomes a confessional performance characterized by its unique intensity and humor. Her drawings also operate in a similar manner and result from her accumulation of notes over a period of time edited into disjointed yet evocative texts. The experience of these drawings resembles that of her live performances where the audience works to accommodate into their stream of thought the shifts in references. Through operating disruptions in direct communication Tompkins makes the content more difficult to grasp but opens new meanings for language. |
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14. Lawrence Weiner
USA : 1942, New York (USA) -
< Two Minutes of Spray Paint upon the
Floor from a Standard Aerosol Spray Can>, 1968, Installation
< Aspiring to Dead Center>, 2008, Drawing
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One of Lawrence Weiner earliest work TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL SPRAY CAN, 1968 is both a minimal sculpture and a performance work. The work can exist either as a description or also as a reproduction when the instructions are carried out and the paint is applied onto the floor. The ways the work exists and even the way it can be actualized (or not) question conventional ideas about art in general and sculpture in particular. In 1969 Weiner proposes the following Declaration of Intent:
1. THE ARTIST MAY CONSTRUCT THE WORK
2. THE WORK MAY BE FABRICATED
3. THE WORK NEED NOT BE BUILT
By also declaring that “each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership,” Weiner also brings the role of the audience into focus.
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15. Abramović/Ulay
Netherlands
Marina Abramović : 1946, Belgrade (Yugoslavia) -
Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen) : 1943, Solingen (Germany) -
< Relation in Movement>, 1977, Video Installation, 35min 21sec, b/w, silent
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In Relation in Movement Abramovic and Ulay drive a van round and round in a circle in a city square in Paris. While Ulay is behind the wheel of the van, Abramovic shouts out through a megaphone, but the film has no sound. They continue driving until it becomes pitch black and only the headlamps are visible and then the sun comes up again, and eventually the black circle drawn by the tire marks appears. In contrast to many of their other performances this challenge does not concern pain but stamina. It also does not rely on an audience to witness the event, only the camera and the casual passer-by, possibly alluding to the narrow circles of thought we move in and the circles around each other people in a relationship unwittingly pursue. |
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16. Joohyun Kim
Korea
< The Web of life >, 2003, Installation |
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The Web of Life derives from the title of a book by Fritjof Capra, who is a philosopher of science. The main concerns in this book are related to how life can be defined as the interactions continuously undertaken by cell-constituting molecules, organs, individuals, species, and the natural environment thatr become a closely woven. In his book Fritjof Capra warns that human beings are threatening the ecosystem including their own selves, when they alienate themselves from nature and ignore the extensive relationships that constitute the phenomenon of life to grant themselves supreme priority.
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17. Jin Ham
Korea
< Work>, 2009, Installation, Photographs |
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Ham Jin creates miniature sculptures with debris materials found in everyday environments, stages them on a miniature exhibition space, and takes pictures of them which will present them as if they are large scale monument sculptures in photos.
He is currently making sculptures with "dust" he found at home- all sorts of micro "pieces and fragments" of everyday objects compose this dust including pieces of skin, hairs, fluffs from various clothes and socks, etc. These materials will be transformed into "large scale monuments" through the process of staging and photographing. Photos will be taken from the view point of audience looking at the sculptures.
In addition to dust, Ham Jin will employ trivial and transient materials like orange peels, water, etc which usually cannot constitute solid monumental sculptures - an ironic comment on the materiality and monumentality of the genre of sculpture.
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18. Mieko Shiomi
Japan
< No. 1 Spatial Poem No. 1>, Objects
< No. 2 Spatial Poem No. 2>, Objects
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Mieko Shiomi founded the group Ongaku (Music) with Takehisa Kosugi and others in 1960 and began expanding her own musical experiments to include improvisation and action. These actions often consist of subtle minimal changes. In 1965 Shiomi took the entire earth as her stage to create Spatial Poems, a series of nine events, where she invited artists throughout the world to contribute with minimal actions or interventions in the environment. She then included reports of these actions sent by the artists in various Fluxus objects and a publication.
For example, Spatial Poem No. 1(1965)Word event consisted of the following invitation:
“Write a word or words on the enclosed card and place it somewhere. Please tell me the word and the place, which will be edited on the world map.”
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