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M+, Hong Kong, © Estate of Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik 白南準
Wurzel aus 平方根
1961
Known primarily as a pioneer of video art, Nam June Paik also produced a number of influential performances and works in other media. Wurzel aus, meaning ‘square root of’ in German, was a gift for the artist Mary Bauermeister, a friend and collaborator. The hanging scroll drawing is an early piece showing the artist’s interest in the East Asian ink art tradition. The square root symbol, or radical sign, is rendered as a gestural blue mark, surrounded by negative space. Similar to the composition, a mathematical function without a number suggests a certain nothingness or indeterminacy. The radical sign, something Paik would use in later works on paper, at times replacing numbers with words, also implies a variable that is both positive and negative. Paik created a number of experimental musical scores and notations, influenced by his interactions with avant-garde composer John Cage. Wurzel aus, from Paik’s time in West Germany in the late 1950s and early 1960s, represents an example of his pre-video work at the beginning of the Fluxus art movement. Informed by Eastern aesthetics and Western minimalism and conceptual art, Wurzel aus asks philosophical questions and suggests infinite possibilities.
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