Maybe because I still need to type onto my iphone carefully with one finger, I’m not a particular fan of video art.  But I am a fan of poetry, humor, brilliant insight, stillness, quiet and such so I Loved TV Buddha by the “Father of Video Art,” Nam June Paik (1932-2006).

To stay au current for myself and art tour clients, I went reluctantly to SFMOMA’s huge retrospective* of the Korean born, musically trained, internationally active artist’s works.  My assumption was the entire show would be alien and incomprehensible to me. But luckily TV Buddha was the very first work in the very first room, and I was pulled right in to Paik’s timeless orbit.  The yogini in me immediately thought of the present day ‘popness’ of the ancient discipline of yoga. But that was just one – of many – associations the work conjured. Surveilence, selfies, the complex presence of technology in human society, religion, history, future.  All those associations and more seem to be present in the work  – on public display but so personal in its reception by each individual viewer past, present and beyond.

*Nam June Paik, SFMOMA, May 8 – October 3, 2021