ART PEOPLE (original) (raw)

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Oct. 3, 1986

ART PEOPLE

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October 3, 1986

Section C, Page

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FOR the last year, Nam June Paik has regularly sent a team of studio assistants to junkyards across the United States. The assignment: to find old televisions and buy them in bulk. It was an updated version of quarrying, for Mr. Paik then used the sets as material for sculpture.

The results are on view at the Holly Solomon gallery, 724 Fifth Avenue, at 57th Street, through Oct. 25. Called ''Family of Robot,'' the exhibition consists of figures fashioned from old television sets that are bolted together and are full of Mr. Paik's whimsical twists.

The sets' electronic insides have been replaced with high-tech video machinery and screens. A nine-inch RCA Victor set from 1948, which forms the upper leg of the ''Grandfather'' figure, shows a computer-generated videotape of images of the Brooklyn Bridge, valentines and geometrical forms all whirling about together.

The exhibition is not Mr. Paik's only presence on the current cultural scene. Tomorrow, a 90-minute ''avant-garde variety program'' entitled ''Bye Bye Kipling'' will be broadcast on Channel 13 at 9 P.M. The show will include interspliced, simultaneous telecasts from the United States, South Korea and Japan, including live coverage of the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, a sumo wrestling match from Tokyo and live performances by American musicians and artists, including Philip Glass, David Tudor and Keith Haring.

In his gallery show, visitors may notice a robot called ''Aunt.'' Why make a sculpture of an aunt robot?

''Aunt is not important in New York,'' explained Mr. Paik. ''But in farm family, aunt is important. They come and sit on porch for long time. So, let's make aunt.'' But Mr. Paik also admits to profounder goals for his work.

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