Image scanned from a transparency and color-corrected by Pat Cagney.

Hamlet Robot

Artist Nam June Paik (American, b. Korea, 1932 - 2006)

CultureAmerican

Date1996

MediumVideo installation

DimensionsOverall: 144 x 88 x 31 in. (365.8 x 223.5 x 78.7 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase and gift of Joan Dalis Martone, Fran and Lenox Baker, Joan and Macon Brock, Susan and Paul Hirschbiel, Renée and Paul Mansheim, and Robert McLanahan Smith III

Object number98.29

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a video installation comprised of televisions in the form of a human figure; other elements, such as a sword, skull, crown and scepter, that are attached to the television simulate the William Shakespeare character, Hamlet. The work consists of the following: Eleven (11) vintage television cabinets; two (2) vintage radio cabinets; five (5) Samsung 13-inch televisions, model 1372; Six (6) KEC 9-inch televisions, model 9BND; two (2) Sony 5-inch televisions, model FDT-5BX5; 1,000 watt transformer; two (2) Pioneer Laser disk players; two (2) original Paik Laser disks. Attached decorative elements: crown, scepter, sword, and skull. The televisions are on and display changing iconography relating to Hamlet.

Label TextNam June Paik American, b. Korea, 1932–2006 Hamlet Robot, 1996 Video installation In 1996 the pioneering video artist Nam June Paik used 13 vintage television sets as building blocks to create this sculpture of the tragic Prince of Denmark from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Paik’s hulking giant wears the family crown, holding a royal staff in one hand and a plastic skull in the other—a playful reference to Hamlet’s dramatic soliloquy on life and death. The TV screens hypnotically pulse with Hamlet movie clips, photographs of Kronborg Castle, and old engravings. These flashing screens lure us to look, but they also evoke the dizzying speed of the electronic “information highway” (a term coined by Paik) and the breakneck pace at which we look at nearly all imagery in the modern world. Museum purchase and gift of Joan Dalis, Fran and Lenox Baker, Joan and Macon Brock, Susan and Paul Hirschbiel, Renée and Paul Mansheim, and Robert McLanahan Smith III 98.29 ProvenanceCarl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio; Chrysler Museum purchase and gift of Joan Dalis Martone, Fran and Lenox Baker, Mr. and Mrs. Macon F. Brock, Jr., Susan and Paul Hirschbiel, Renée and Paul Mansheim, and Robert McLanahan Smith III, 1998. Exhibition History"Nam June Paik Video Sculptures: Electronic Undercurrents," Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, September 7 - November 30, 1996. "Remix: A Fresh Look At Our Modern And Contemporary Art Collections," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, November 2, 2011 - March 17, 2012.Published ReferencesEssay by Lars Movin, _Nam June Paik Video Sculptures: Electronic Undercurrents_, exh. cat., Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1996, 54-55. "Grace Notes," _Port Folio Weekly_ (June 1-7, 1999): 20. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 260-261, no. 159. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Jeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 84, fig. 99. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1