Jud Yalkut

Only the film Kusama's Self-Obliteration can today still give an idea of the energy and radicality with which Yayoi Kusama provoked the New York art world of the late 1960s with her performances. The film documents the legendary 'nude happenings' of these years, and has been shown at numerous international film festivals and awarded several prizes. (UBI Web)

Archival footage of news conferences by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and New York Mayor John Lindsay is subject to image distortion and video alteration, in order to emphasize media manipulation and the fragile power of news outlets.

Part of a collection of restored early works by Nam June Paik, the haunting Beatles Electronique reveals Paik’s engagement with manipulation of pop icons and electronic images. Snippets of footage from A Hard Day’s Night are countered with Paik’s early electronic processing. (Letterboxd)

Part of the “Video-Film Concert” collection released by EAI. From 1966 - 1972.

Part of a restored collection of rare early works by Nam June Paik, Electronic Fables is an example of Paik’s early improvisations and experiments with electronic image manipulation, prior to his invention of the Paik/Abe Video Synthesizer. This piece also makes use of anecdotes by John Cage and other influential artists and cultural figures.

Part of the “Video-Film Concert” collection on EAI. From 1966 - 1972. Music by K. S. Narayanaswami.

Marked by a playful, irreverent sense of improvisation and experimentation, these experiments with image manipulation and synthesis form a link between Paik’s performance and sculptural works of the 1950s and early 1960s and the celebrated video works and installations of his later years. (Letterboxd)

Video Commune is Jud Yalkut’s free-form documentation of Nam June Paik’s first interactive television “performance” at the public television station WGBH in Boston. Subtitled “Beatles from Beginning to End,” this was a live broadcast in which Paik created a freewheeling collage of recorded images, image-processing and Beatles music.

TV Cello Premiere is a silent film documentation of Charlotte Moorman in her first performance on Paik’s eponymous TV Cello at the Bonino Gallery in New York in 1971.

Part of a restored collection of rare early works by Nam June Paik, Waiting for Commercials is a hilarious compendium of Japanese TV commercials. This early example of Paik’s use of appropriated television imagery as pop cultural artifact was originally created for a performance piece of the same name, which featured Charlotte Moorman and her cello.