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Nam June Paik
Eagle Eye, 1996
antique slide projector, aluminum, nine computer keyboards, eye chart, neon,
nine Sony 5" white televisions model FDT-5BX5, two KEC 9" televisions model 9BND, DVD
67 x 81 x 24 1/2 inches, 5 minutes
Ackland Fund 99.8
Paik, long considered the pioneer of video art, uses the medium to express the complexities of contemporary culture. Inspired by both the spirit of Zen and the ever-changing dynamics of American society, the artist has created a unique and expressive style of art that creatively fuses new technologies.
The powerful interweaving of form and content places Eagle Eye among Paik's finest works of this period. Its composition, an assemblage of nine computer keyboards and televisions forming the bird's wings and tail feathers, is simultaneously ingenious and elegant. Blue neon light radiates from behind to suggest the rarefied atmospheric space of the eagle, whose iconography mirrors the Native American thunderbird.
Included are references to obsolescent technologies -- an old slide projector and eye chart -- and the artist's self-portrait. Paik is the eagle, who has symbolically endowed the sculpture itself with vision.
The video is a kaleidoscope of pulsating images programmed and edited with the aid of a computer. Sublime satellite photographs of Earth and a solar eclipse intermingle with images of American missiles launched and targeted for destruction. Paik juxtaposes these two opposing aspects of technology that continue to haunt humanity. He injects an element of humor with his reference to a Pop art image of a girl wearing oversized sunglasses. We also glimpse views of Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and a portrait of Laurie Anderson, a performance artist and musician who adapts new technologies to her work. As the video unfolds, a cyborg head looms progressively larger, a reference to Paik's interest in robotics and the future. With Eagle Eye the artist not only provides a prescription for seeing but also a richer understanding of both art and life.
Toni Stooss and Thomas Kellein, eds., Nam June Paik: Video Time, Video Space, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1993.)
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