Titled From Horse to Christo this exhibition gathers together works through which Nam June Paik explored new realms of communication art and acknowledged changes to human environments nurtured by the emergence of new media. Through these works, this exhibition offers an opportunity to consider true communication within evolving media environments in general and today’s internet and smartphone-dominated reality in particular.

In his 1981 essay "From Horse to Christo," Paik examines how people transmitted information through messengers on horseback in a time when the means of communication and transportation were intertwined. Paik was one of the artists who thought that development of information technology will change human environment and these change will have an effect on the way of how people communicate. He comments on the changes brought about by the new media environment established by the emergence of television; and foreseeing the age of new technologies after TV and video, he also emphasized on psychic power, like telepathy, a genuine means of communication. 

This essay exposes Paik's specific use of terminology and concepts. His use of language was so unique that his friends and fellow artists coined the term "Paikish." Paikish mainly consisted of mixing languages from many countries. Not only a symbolic reference to the various cultures Paik had passed through, Paikish was also an articulation of how the artist's philosophy was not necessarily to seek the perfect reception of messages. He suggested that 'noise' occurred in two-way communication, and mistranslation was also a way of delivering messages. Within this system, Paik gave equal importance to both the role of sender and that of the receiver.

Artist: Douglas Davis, Gregory Battcock, Nam June Paik, Shigeko Kubota, Jud Yalkut, John Godfrey

*image (left)
Untitled, 1984
50x37x6cm
Nam June Paik Art Center collection
© Nam June Paik Studio