I have mentioned Paik's video work a few times throughout my research so far after I was lucky enough to see the father of video's work in exhibition at the Tate Modern last year. The retrospective culminated in over 200 pieces of art, photographs, moving image pieces and archive objects, all concentrated in a mesmerising organised chaos of light and sound, from his never seen initial experiments to his large scale immersive installations.
There was one piece that specifically, one piece that really made me transfixed me and has in turn really influenced my final major project is. Originally made in 1993, Paik's Sistine Chapel is a technological spin on Michelangelo’s classic pièce de résistance. Sistine Chapel is an all-consuming large scale installation composed of a a scaffolding structure with 40 video projectors pointing in every direction.
This sheer amount of technology, noise and imagery creates a sense of impact by the myriad of overlapping images and a cacophony of audio. Paik originally made the installation in 1993, to criticise the overload on information that we were beginning to suffer from. Now 26 years later, Paik’s installation has never been more relevant with the overload of information increasing exponentially with each passing day.
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