Joan Rothfuss on Nam June Paik

Joan Rothfuss is a writer and curator, and is best known for her most recent biography on Charlotte Moorman called Topless Cellist: The Improbable Life of Charlotte Moorman. For her artist lecture, Rothfuss spoke about the works of Nam June Paik, who often collaborated with Charlotte Moorman (as seen in the picture). Paik is considered to be the father of video art, however true that might be. 

Throughout his life as an artist, Paik actively sought new ways of making and performing music. Like John Cage, Paik worked outside of the mainstream and his work evoked a lot of different feelings in the audience from what the fuck to total blankness. Listening to Rothfuss talk about Paik, it is obvious that Paik challenged the canon as to what art was thought to be. It also made me think about how cultural everything is, from the way how art is experienced to what art is even thought to be. 

Whenever I learn about post-war avant-garde artist I never know what to think. Yea, Paik work is interesting,  but it's not interesting in the way how I think Cardi B's or Beyonce's work is. Paik's work is complicated and quite confusing. I understand what it asks of me, but I don't know what to do with it. Paik's work provides a total transformation of the image on some philosophical type shit where there is NO "distinction between the real and imabiganry, leaving room only for the orbital recurrence of models and the simulated generation of difference" (Jean Braudrillard 4).