Mixed Media, 4 antique television cabinents, 4 color televisions, a globe, neon, laser disc player, Paik laser disc, and antennas.
56 х 56 х 23 in. cm.
Nam June Paik’s “Polaris” is an excellent example of the artist’s revolutionary use of the common television set as a building block in the construction of large-scale multimedia sculptures. “Polaris” takes the form of the star by the same name that is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. Paik's complex re-creation mimics the unique makeup of Polaris, which is a "multiple star" composed of one central star that is accompanied by two smaller companions and two distant elements. Created from four 13 inch color TVs set into antique television cabinets, Paik positions antennas radiating out like a sunburst and haloed by bands of neon. A laser disc player streams a video composed of various sequences.
Widely regarded as the pioneer of video art, Name June Paik was a central figure in the Fluxus movement of the 1960’s and 70’s along with John Cage, Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono, and others. Utilizing a variety of technological objects from past and present, Paik’s works explore relationships between the body and technology. In a now-legendary performance held on New Year’s Day, 1984, Paik aired “Good Morning, Mr. Orwell,” Paik applied his ideas of technology to prove that Big Brother had in fact not arrived in the infamous year by joining individuals, continents, and cultures in a live link between New York (TV channel WNET), Paris (the Centres Pompidou), and South Korea, with the participation of Joseph Beuys, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Salvador Dalí, Laurie Anderson , and Allen Ginsberg, among others. Important exhibitions by Nam June Paik include “Projects: Nam June Paik” (1977) at the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY); “Nam June Paik” (1989) at the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY); “Nam June Paik” (1989) at the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France); “Nam June Paik” (1989) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA); “Nam June Paik Retrospective: Videotime” (1992) at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea); and “The Worlds of Nam June Paik” (2000) at the Guggenheim (New York, NY). Paik’s has received awards and grants from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller Foundation, American Film Institute, Will Grohmann Award, Goslar Emperor's Ring and UNESCO's Picasso Medal.
Paik’s large scale works have fetched over $645,000 at auction, and major examples similar to “Big Shoulder” can be found in prominent museum collections throughout the world, such as:
Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
Guggenheim Collection (New York, NY)
Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY)
Fukuoka Art Museum (Fukuoka, Japan)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA)
Reina Sofia National Museum (Madrid, Spain)
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.)
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville (Paris, France)
Smithsonian Museum of American Art (Washington D.C.)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, CA)