TV Cello

TV Cello amalgamates aspects of sculpture, the human body, musical instrument, video, and electronics, challenging distinctions between body and instrument, machine and art. Pioneering video artist Nam June Paik created the work in collaboration with avant-garde cellist Charlotte Moorman, who appears on the monitors that make up the cello’s body. Beneath the transparent skin of its torso-like form, circuit boards, wires, transistors, vacuum tubes, neon, and flickering screens animate the instrument from within—a vision of a body brought to life by electricity. Earlier versions of this work incorporated a live performance by Moorman, her playing simultaneously transmitted to the screens.