Self Portrait, 1989
1950s Philco Predicta television containing bronze mask of the artist, video tape, antique TV cubes and circuit board, eggs, painted globe, watch, suspenders, pewter Buddha, magnet, painted toy piano, I-Ching page, silk flowers, eyeglasses. 61 x 68.5 x 40.5 cm. Edition: 12, signed and numbered with brush on top of object.
Nam June Paik’s Self-Portrait edition is a vibrant, autobiographical assemblage that transforms a 1950s Philco Predicta television into a densely layered shrine of personal and cultural symbolism. At its center is a bronze cast of Paik’s own face, wearing brightly colored glasses with embedded miniature video screens – blurring the line between the artist and the media he both embraced and critiqued. Surrounding the mask are symbolic objects from East and West, high and low culture: from circuit boards and Buddha figures to toy instruments and silk flowers. As in much of Paik’s work, technology is not cold or distant – it is humanized, playful, and deeply personal. Self-Portrait becomes not just a literal portrait of the artist, but a portrait of media consciousness itself: fragmented, global, and alive with humor, memory, and critique.
