I’ve been working with FACT’s Freehand and Young Tate to create a response to the great Nam June Paik retrospective which is on at both venues til March 13th. I worked with the groups over six sessions to come up with an idea and then execute it in FACT’s media Lounge in time for the NJP opening. It was a big deal for the young people to be given a such a prominent space during such a high profile show so we wanted to create something that reflected the creative energy of the group and the multi-faceted nature of NJP’s work over the five decades the show spanned. We came up with the idea of making the media lounge into a giant TV, TV’s obviously being central to much of the artists work. It was a great comcept as it gave us the opportunity to split the insides of the ‘TV’ into different spaces reflecting the different parts of NJP’s practice. We made fluxus style performance ‘scores’ and which were filmed then screened in the front of the TV, where the ‘action’ would take place, then towards the rear we made all the components, wires, transistors etc, and had another bank of TV’s which visitors could manipulate using giant magnetic remote controls. Did I mention we had also turned some lovely Samsung flat screen TV’s into musical instruments which could be played, and that all of this was videod and displayed on the outside of the space so people outside could see in and those inside the ‘TV’ could see out? There was so much going on it’s hard to do it all justice!
As a first project working with FACT, it was hugely succesful in my opinion. We received loads of positive feedback, met the south Korean ambassador, and had alot of fun…
