{"data":{"id":"8532","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":8532,"topgoose_id":6095,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":8532,"title":"Fin de Siecle II","display_artist_text":"Nam June Paik","display_date":"1989","accession_number":"93.139","dimensions":"Overall: 168 × 480 × 60 in. (426.7 × 1219.2 × 152.4 cm)","medium":"Video installation, 207 television sets with seven video channels","department":"collection","classification":"Sculpture","credit_line":"Gift of Laila and Thurston Twigg-Smith","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":null,"publication_info":"","description":"\u003cp\u003eNam June Paik, \u003cem\u003eFin de Siecle II\u003c/em\u003e, 1989. Video installation, 207 television sets with seven video channels, overall: 168 × 480 × 60 in. (426.7 × 1219.2 × 152.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Laila and Thurston Twigg-Smith 93.139. © Nam June Paik Estate\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eTo create the monumental \u003ci\u003eFin de Siècle II\u003c/i\u003e, Nam June Paik edited and reconfigured sequences from previously broadcast television programs and art videos, drawing out formal commonalities and patterns in seemingly disparate images. He thus liberates the moving images from their original contexts. Paik used televised programs as his medium but also programmed the work itself to arrange the image sequences in a predetermined composition. \u003ca\u003e\u003ci\u003eFin de Siècle II\u0026nbsp;\u003c/i\u003e\u003c/a\u003ereflects how programming saturates and shapes our world, both through media content and through the underlying technological mechanisms that structure and transmit such content.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eUtilizing 207 video monitors in scaffolding and seven video channels \u003ci\u003eFin de Siecle II\u003c/i\u003e is one of Nam June Paik’s largest video walls. Six of the video channels show Paik’s silent image-processed video collages with various themes. The seventh—what Paik called the “Main Channel” and the only video with sound—is displayed on 64 monitors, forming the center-core of the installation. Three videos dominate this main channel: artist Rebecca Allen’s computer animation commissioned by Kraftwerk for their music video \u003ci\u003eMusique Non-Stop\u003c/i\u003e (1986); David Bowie singing \u003ci\u003eLook Back in Anger\u003c/i\u003e and dancing with Louise Lecavalier and her company \u003ci\u003eLaLaLa Human Steps\u003c/i\u003e (recording from Paik’s 1988 satellite link-up project \u003ci\u003eWrap Around The World\u003c/i\u003e); and Paul Garrin’s \u003ci\u003eNude\u003c/i\u003e (1989) with music by Philip Glass, which contains a reference to Paik’s own performance piece \u003ci\u003eViolin with string\u003c/i\u003e (1961). Other shorter videos include excerpts from \u003ci\u003eMerce on Merce\u003c/i\u003e by Paik (1978) featuring Gera’s \u003ci\u003eKizomba, Festa da Raça\u003c/i\u003e and Joseph Beuys performing together with Paik in 1984 at the Sogetsu Hall in Tokyo.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A large wall of televisions displays blue-toned faces in a dark gallery room.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T16:02:28.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T11:59:58.063-05:00","images":[{"id":99754,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/8532/93_139_vw1_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"986","type":"artist"}]}}}}