Where To Find More Nam June Paik Video Art Outside Of The Mca S David Bowie Exhibit

• Nam June Paik’s Global Groove (1973)

Before attending the David Bowie exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I was unaware that Bowie had collaborated on a music video in the 1980s with Nam June Paik. I wasn’t surprised to learn of this collaboration, however. Paik, who died in 2006 at the age of 74, is widely considered to be the godfather of video art. His groundbreaking work from the 1960s and ’70s introduced a range of devices to the new medium of video, such as stroboscopic effects, closed-feedback loops, and the use of magnets to deform how the images appeared on TV sets. Bowie, of course, has always looked to the art world for inspiration (the MCA exhibit makes reference to a number of postwar avant-gardists). In hindsight it seems practically inevitable that he would turn to Paik when he embarked on his own video-making endeavors.