source: artsynet

Upon the death of “Father of Video Art” Nam June Paik in 2007, Carsten Nicolai paid homage to his predecessor with work that recalls the late artist’s television distortions of the ’60s. Back then, a curious Paik held a horseshoe-shaped magnet to the top of a television set to experiment with the electromagnetic waves on his screen; it was only the beginning of his long career of manipulating the image (see the fascinating video about his Wobbulator device, at right).

Since 2007, Nicolai has lost little momentum in his video pursuits, and currently, his crt mgn—short for cathode ray tube, and magnet—is installed at Galerie EIGEN + ART, Berlin, where a series of neon tubes transfers light to a television screen that is manipulated by a magnet swinging on a pendulum. Paik surely would have been proud.

On view at Galerie EIGEN + Art Berlin through May 18, 2013, and as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin.