Nam June Paik's 'Exposition of Music', 1963
“No longer restricted to the exposition of an academic thesis, or the animated exposure of the connoisseurship of the collection of a museum, the temporary art exhibition, particularly, has become the principal medium in the distribution and reception of art and therefore is the principal agency in the debates and criticism around any aspect of the visual arts. Exhibitions leave traces in discourses as various as contemporary art history, journalistic and academic criticism, and forms of cultural anthropology, as well as in the active interests of collectors, artists and arts bureaucrats. ” (Ferguson, B. 1996, p. 129).
In this essay I will focus on Nam June Paik’s first major exhibition ‘Exposition of Music - Electronic Television’ which took place in 1963, in the three-storey Parnass Gallery in Wuppertal, Germany. “Paik presented a spectacular show which took over three stories of Jahrling's villa, spilling from the living rooms down to the basement and turning the bourgeois order of the house on its head.” (Köb, E. 2009, p. 10). I believe this exhibition left a trace of discourse that reveals a certain significance and therefore warrants being explored. This essay will break Paik’s 1963 exhibition down into two sections, beginning with the performances that took place and following with the materials used. Paik was quite the renegade in all aspects of his work as he not only disrupted the societal idea of both classical music and media technologies but shattered their conventions and paved the way for an enormous amount of alternative modes of expression. “The story of his accomplishments speaks to fundamental changes in our visual culture—changes he helped to realize—as media took on a more significant role.” (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 148).
Paik was the first artist to use TV and video in his work, he was revolutionary not only because of his prediction of new technologies but because of the way in which he explored the meaning of the exhibition with regard to how and what we put on display. “There is no question that he was not seriously committed to every aspect of the exhibition." (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 32).
Though primarily known as a video artist, Paik's first interest was musical composition. “Nam June’s first taste of what was possible in art came through his studies at the University of Tokyo, where he wrote his thesis on modernist composer Arnold Schoenberg.” (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 150). It seems that Paik was heavily inspired by Schoenberg with regard to his creative methods as well as his musical experiments. In Hinton’s ‘Emancipation of Dissonance’, he explains that Schoenberg “stressed that his musical innovations, however influential they might have been, had emerged during a long period of experimentation.” (Hinton, S. 2010, p. 568).
“These investigations into the multi-dimensional properties of music characterised Paik's development as a visual artist from 1958 onwards when he moved to Cologne, and where he subsequently met the innovative composer John Cage as well as artists Joseph Beuys and Wolf Vostell who, like Paik, were also to contribute to George Maciunas's Fluxus movement.” (Griffin, C. 2011, p. 194).
It is clear through Paik’s pioneering breakthroughs that he took on Schoenberg’s experimental approach to art-making, but he wasn’t the only one who had significant influences on him during this time. Paik was strongly encouraged and influenced by his new companions with whom he became acquainted in Germany in the late 1950’s.
“The most dramatic event of the exposition was unplanned: the destruction of a
piano by Beuys, as described by Manfred Montwé in this catalogue. Whether regarded as
an interpretation of Philip Corner's Piano Activities or Paik's One for Violin Solo, Beuys
was reacting to action music from the past rather than the Paik of the Exposition of Music - Electronic Television. There is a photo of Beuys looking at the piano at the entrance before
he smashed it up a short time later. It was the only piano that had not been prepared and
was supposedly due to be returned to the manufacturer Ibach. No matter how it turned
out in the end, Jahrling thanked Adolf Ibach by letter as if nothing had happened. Schmit
tells us that Paik commented, “I liked it.” Beuys called the “Paik thing” an “historic act.” (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 36).
Fig. 1. Joseph Beuys attacking a prepared piano with an axe at "Exposition of Music - Electronic Television," March 11, 1963.
Ferguson has acknowledged exhibitions as moments of communication that are primarily acts of persuasion. (Ferguson, B. 1996, p. 132). This exhibition was integral to the Fluxus movement, as there was a special emphasis on speculation and improvisation. Although it can be recreated as many times as we like, in comparison to other exhibitions (that may only rely on the placement of objects, and not time-based works and performances), it cannot be re-lived. The MUMOK retrospective exhibition “Music for All Senses” that took place in 2009 and the accompanying catalogue, seek to reconstruct the spatial layout and revive the do-it-yourself approach of the legendary Wuppertal show. Photo documents, sound, original and reconstructed objects all combine to recreate the atmosphere and enhance our understanding of the original show. (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 39). I would argue that the atmosphere of the 1963 Wuppertal show is one of the few things that couldn't possibly be recreated due, not only, to the spatial and participatory element of the exhibition but also the technological advances and advances in the approach to exhibition-making that have changed so drastically in the last 60 years.
Paik embraced new explorations of ‘chance’ in this exhibition, members of Fluxus would call them ‘situations’ or ‘happenings’. “He famously subjected John Cage to a range of ordeals and cut off his necktie.” (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 32). It can be seen through the improvisational performances and ‘found sound’ that Paik was extremely influenced by John Cage, whom he met only a few years prior to this exhibition. “He propagated a concept of a space-time art that spanned the genres and rejected the separation of performers from the director and the producer from the audience. The same kind of participation was also required for the television experiments, although it involved less action.” (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 36).
Although Paik’s visitors were not subject to the usual restrictions placed on those attending an exhibition, certain parameters in Wuppertal were fixed, such as the place and opening times. While he is known to have been enthusiastic about the 1958 Düsseldorf DADA show, Paik was comparatively inexperienced with exhibitions as a medium and must have been unfamiliar with the conventions of a typical art exhibition. Even Paik, who actively involved his visitors, repeatedly fell back on the exhibition format at the intersection of performance and concert and supported the medium of the exhibition although he disregarded its institutional implications as he had hoped to sell some works. (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 33).
Fig. 2. Random Access, 1963, audiotape collage with magnetic audio heads, at "Exposition of Music- Electronic Television," March 1963.
Paik was present for this show, interacting with and performing for his visitors, which is something that we don’t see much in exhibitions today. Some of the pieces in this exhibition relied on the public to carry out their own interactive experiments, as seen above in ‘Random Access’ (Fig. 1). “He wanted to empower the viewer to interact with the artwork.” (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 151). In the image shown below, we see Nam June performing ‘Listening to Music Through the Mouth’ (Fig. 2) where he has modified a record player by mounting a phallic-shaped object on it. Paik held the phallic object in his mouth and listened to the record by feeling its vibrations through his mouth.
Fig. 3. Paik performing Listening to Music Through the Mouth at "Exposition of Music Electronic Television," Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, March 1963.
These progressive performances and instinctual responses to both classical music and the conventional exhibition etiquette stunned Paik’s audience, marking a turning point in the conversation of the artist as exhibition-maker and widening the restrictions of exhibition-making.
Many of the materials used in ‘Exposition of Music - Electronic Television’ had never been seen in an exhibition context like this before. From the mannequin in the bathtub and audio tape reels on the walls, to stacked phonograph records, pianos and televisions, Paik’s audience were sure to experience something like never before.
This choice of materials was revolutionary in breaking down barriers between art and music. Paik’s engagement in destructive sound expansion practices, destroying a number of traditional instruments, would subsequently reconstruct the audience's conventional ideas of classical music. (Stuart, C. 2003, p. 47). “Whenever you use a different medium to make a theoretical argument, you inevitably use the materiality of that medium in constructing what you say and do.” (Bollmer, G. 2019, p. 14). Bollmer made this claim in relation to media technologies, but it is evident through this exhibition, that by using the materiality of classical instruments and televisions, Paik brought along with them their social and political histories and hierarchies. “What something is, has to be understood in terms of what it does and how it works within the mechanic, systemic, and cultural domain.” (Bollmer, G. 2019, p.15). According to Bollmer, Paik’s decision to use musical instruments in his 1963 exhibition, inevitably meant that he would use the materiality of them in order to form a conversation around how these objects are traditionally used and how they can be manipulated.
“Although his idea to use televisions as instruments in orchestral installations followed soon after his first experiments with standard audio equipment such as record players and tape decks, Paik kept this area of his artistic research secret from his peers until his first solo exhibition, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television. It was here that the artist presented a number of key works for the first time, including a number of so-called 'prepared pianos' which were re-engineered so as to produce unexpected, and often destructive, effects when a participant touched their keys.” (Griffin, C. 2011, p. 194).
This same approach of using the materiality of an object can be seen through the use of 13 television sets. The presence of televisions was particularly significant, as after writing a letter to Cage in 1959 expressing his theoretical and artistic interest in television, this exhibition was the first time Paik exhibited his ‘prepared televisions’, thus marking the incorporation of this medium into his art making. (Hanhardt, J. 2008, p. 12).
Fig. 4. Thomas Schmit in the television room at the Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, Parnass Gallery, Wupperta.
Ferguson has also described exhibitions as strategic systems of representation, whose aim is the conversation of its audiences to alter social relations. (Ferguson, B. 1996, p. 128). This is particularly relevant in ‘Exposition of Music - Electronic Television’ as for the first time, Paik proves the possibility of a television controlled and produced directly by the user. “The effect was a transformation of the viewer’s relationship to the received broadcast image.” (Hanhardt, J. 2008, p. 4).
“He also altered the received broadcast image, and in so doing sought to seize control of the television set, refusing its standardized broadcast message and remaking it into his own. Even before the commercial development of the portable videotape player and recorder, he understood that television could be an interactive and artist-empowered instrument, not simply a one-way conduit of received programming.” (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 150).
The use of an object, such as a television, seen in a completely new context than ever before, starts a conversation and is therefore bound to alter social relations. It is said that “the contemporary prevalence of work made with so-called 'new media' is often traced back to Paik's first experiments with televisions and audio-recording equipment in the early 1960's.” (Griffin, C. 2011, p. 194).
Representing the political and social superstructure of "high culture," the use of classical instruments in this exhibition is revolutionary in and of itself, as they are not commonly known as an experimental art form. There has always been a correct way to perform classical music and there is not much room for error, as mishaps are neither celebrated nor rewarded. Rigid instrumentation and traditional compositions of orchestral music have often been the target for creatives seeking to shatter conventions and shape new modes of expression. (Gates, J, 2017). Paik’s decision to use them in this context would have been in stark contrast to what his audience knew of classical instruments at the time.
“These pianos, presented like relics in this exhibition, illustrate the performative and interactive nature of Paik's work, which was influenced to a great extent by the aesthetic sensibilities of the neo-Dada practitioners with whom he spent much of his time.” (Griffin, C. 2011, p. 194). Griffin’s description of Paik’s pianos being presented like relics poses an interesting idea that the pianos in his 1963 show actually already looked like surviving historical objects long before they came to be just that in the MUMOK collection. “MUMOK holds the largest collection of Paik’s works, including Klavier Integral (which is the only remaining of the four prepared pianos) and Zen for TV.” (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 39).
Fig. 5. Prepared pianos at "Exposition of Music- Electronic Television," March 1963.
“Art museums and other officially sanctioned art institutions are some of the validated social characters who speak the language called exhibitions. Who speaks TO and FOR WHOM and UNDER WHAT CONDITIONS as well as WHERE and WHEN the particular utterance occurs are significant questions that can be asked of any communications performance.” (Ferguson, B. 1996, p. 132). This allows us to think about how this particular voice is filtered and mediated by its connections to other people, other institutions, other kinships and networks of influence. (Ferguson, B. 1996, p. 132).
I believe that how and where Paik chose to display his works are extremely important aspects of this exhibition, but it seems that these strands aren't documented as adequately as are the performances and the materials. I found that the documentation was more focused on what medium’s Paik used and what happened, rather than the actual layout of rooms. It is said though that, Paik was able to spread out over three whole stories of the house. “One critic mentioned that only two rooms remained for the Jahrlings; given the size of the villa, this might seem somewhat disproportionate, yet it provides an indication both of Paik's tendency to take over space and of Jahrling's generosity.” (Neuburger, S. 2009, p. 32).
In Paik’s art and ideas, technology does not determine but enables a dynamic remix of media and an opportunity to expand beyond the artificial boundaries established by critics and art historians to package the accepted interpretation of art. (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 153).
‘Exposition of Music - Electronic Television’ would change the way we look at exhibition-making. According to Bismark, it is only from the 1990’s that it had become a standard and accepted practice for artists to take over various tasks that were usually reserved for the curator, (Von Bismarck, B. 2007. p. 31). tasks that Paik had taken over from the 1960’s. Through these avant-garde, experimental performances and range of eclectic materials, Paik turned the conventional idea of the exhibition on its head. This exhibition was successful in bridging the gap between music and the electronically generated image, while also marking the beginning of video art. Paik’s constant challenge to the conventions of art-making through the uncanny mix of visionary and pragmatic thinking (Hanhardt, J. 2006, p. 153) would pave the way for the next generation of artists.
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Fig. 1. Joseph Beuys attacking a prepared piano with an axe at "Exposition of Music - Electronic Television," March 11, 1963. Photo by Manfred Leve.
Fig. 2. Random Access, 1963, audiotape collage with magnetic audio heads, at "Exposition of Music- Electronic Television," March 1963. Photos by Manfred Montwé.
Fig. 3. Paik performing Listening to Music Through the Mouth at "Exposition of Music Electronic Television," Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, March 1963. Photo by Manfred Montwé.
Fig. 4. Thomas Schmit in the television room at the Exposition of Music – Electronic Television, Parnass Gallery, Wuppertal. Fig 5. Prepared pianos at "Exposition of Music- Electronic Television," March 1963. Photo by Manfred Montwé.