16mm film transferred to high-defnition video (color, sound)
For Waiting for Commercials, Paik and Yalkut appropriated the cheerful sounds and repetitive language of advertising in post–World War II Japan. Originally made for a performance with the artist Charlotte Moorman, the video collages ads for Pepsi, mascara, and Nescafé. Interspersed throughout the clips is a black-and-white recording (manipulated with electromagnets) of an interview with the media theorist Marshall McLuhan, recalling his famous adage that “the medium is the message.”
2025
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Nam June Paik
American, born Korea. 1932–2006 106 works onlineI have to entertain people every second,” Nam June Paik has said. The tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating nature of the quip is characteristic of Paik’s attitude toward art making.
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Things: A Story of the Sixties
Gallery 412This gallery takes its name— Things —from French writer Georges Perec’s 1965 novel, which follows the journey of a young couple who “wanted life’s enjoyment, but all around them enjoyment was equated with ownership.
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MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
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