Robert Goddard, 1995
Artist
Nam June Paik
(American, born in Korea, 1932–2006)
Date1995
Mediumaluminum structure, wooden cabinet, electronic components, neon glass tubing, two video sequences
Dimensions240.6 x 215.9 x 55.9 cm (94 3/4 x 85 x 22 in.)
ClassificationsTime-based media
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds from Mary H. and Donald R. Melville, Linda and John Nelson, and the Theodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Fund
Terms
Object number1997.108
Description1 old Zenith television cabinet, 1 Kennedy Cathedral radio cabinet, 12 KEC 9BND 9" television set, 1 Samsung TXD1372 13" television set, paint, metal cylinders, aluminum framework, flashing strobe bulbs, 2 Pioneer laser disk players, 2 original Paik laser disks, neon tubing.Label TextComposer, performer, and artist, Nam June Paik is widely considered the inventor of video art. His fascination with popular culture and the effects of modern technology, specifically the cultural collision of art and television, led him to create a series of video portraits that pay homage to his “technology ancestors”—individuals whose innovations, like Paik’s own pioneering efforts with video as an artistic tool in the 1960s, were culture-transforming events. They include among others Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, and Robert Goddard, the Worcester native and physicist who invented, developed, and in 1926 launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. Rather than depicting the man as he appeared, Paik built a robot-like structure out of assorted electronics (antique and recent), aluminum, and neon which plays a video image demonstrating the modern rocketry and astronautic technology that grew out of Goddard’s life work.ProvenanceCarl Solway, Carl Solway Gallery
On View
On view
1650–1675