RIP Nam June Paik
January 31, 2006
Aw geez. Another one off the list of people I wanted to see/meet/work with/watch before they died.
I know there are young artists out there taking the long road around like others on my list: Derek Bailey, Lester Bowie, Spaulding Gray, Susan Sontag, Bob Moog, (John Cage & Don Cherry went ages ago, but I was so close, I’m still bitter.) I know you need to take your time, and fail a lot first. But I still want a peek. Where are you? Not in the New York Times, or at Julliard, or Art in America.
My heart hurts for all the things passed and forgotten. It leaps for joy at the thought that for a moment at least, at the end, someone will pay attention. Paik won’t be lost: he’ll be re-and-re-and-re-invented…