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M+, Hong Kong, © Estate of Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik 白南準
Ay-O 靉嘔
Untitled 無題
1968
Nam June Paik and Ay-O, artists associated with the experimental art group Fluxus active in the 1960s and 1970s, both sought to push the definition of sculpture beyond monumental figurative objects in the heavy, ‘respectable’ materials of stone or metal. This collaborative work, a hybrid of their independent explorations, takes the form of a painted wooden box. While the sides are black, the top is painted with a bright rainbow gradient, moving inward from violet to red. At the centre of the object, a rectangular cut-out reveals a small television set laid on its back. A single diagonal line glows on the television’s screen.
In form, the work mimics Ay-O’s earlier Finger Box and Tactile Box series: cardboard or wooden boxes pierced with holes and printed with typographic designs. Viewers were invited to put their fingers or hands into the boxes, where they would encounter objects made of various materials, including hair, cotton, and foam rubber. This work also anticipates Ay-O’s fascination with the optical effects of colour gradients, evident in later paintings that would give him the nickname ‘Rainbow Man’ in his native Japan. Paik’s contribution to the work builds on his pioneering use of television sets as a sculptural medium. In his earlier Zen for TV series, Paik replaced the frenetic cycle of television images with the meditative experience of a single glowing line, alluding to Buddhist concept of the ‘middle way’ or the practice of ‘silent illumination’. Here, a similar manipulation of the television set draws attention to its physical presence, rather than it simply being used as a purveyor of images.
In form, the work mimics Ay-O’s earlier Finger Box and Tactile Box series: cardboard or wooden boxes pierced with holes and printed with typographic designs. Viewers were invited to put their fingers or hands into the boxes, where they would encounter objects made of various materials, including hair, cotton, and foam rubber. This work also anticipates Ay-O’s fascination with the optical effects of colour gradients, evident in later paintings that would give him the nickname ‘Rainbow Man’ in his native Japan. Paik’s contribution to the work builds on his pioneering use of television sets as a sculptural medium. In his earlier Zen for TV series, Paik replaced the frenetic cycle of television images with the meditative experience of a single glowing line, alluding to Buddhist concept of the ‘middle way’ or the practice of ‘silent illumination’. Here, a similar manipulation of the television set draws attention to its physical presence, rather than it simply being used as a purveyor of images.
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