Video installation: Nam June Paik's Fingerprints
Video by Taly Johnson and Russ Johnson. Presented as video installation at Top Kino.
In the 1970's, Nam June Paik recorded TV commercials on several reels of AV videotape. He pressed "record" when a TV commercial was starting and "Stop" when the program started creating "deck edits". Our piece is from these reels. We removed the complete ads and left only his deck edits.
We started working on this video in early January in tribute to Paik. In a mystic twist, as we happily finished seeing his portrait emerge so clearly, we sadly learned that Nam June Paik had just passed away. Paik once wrote "Once on videotape, you are not allowed to die..." and as we watched this footage we could not deny that we had recovered a portrait (or self-portrait) ...The fingerprints of Paik that had been captured in the 70's. Long live Nam June Paik!
(Text: Taly and Russ Johnson)
Link: http://www.talyandruss.com/