Charlotte Moorman

Nam June Paik, TV Cello.  Played by Charlotte Moorman.  Ca 1964.

Nam June Paik / Charlotte Moorman - TV Bra for Living Sculpture (1969) and Chamber Music (1969)

Nam June Paik participated in Fluxus. He made his big debut at the Exposition of Music-Electronic Television, in which he scattered televisions everywhere, and used magnets to alter or distort their images. In 1964, Paik moved to New York, and began working with cellist Charlotte Moorman. In a notorious 1967 incident, Moorman was arrested for going topless while performing Paik's Opera Sextronique. Two years later, they performed TV Bra for Living Sculpture, in which Charlotte wore a bra with small TV screens over her breasts.

Ars Electronica 1982 - Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman
Short excerpt about the performances of Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman wich took place at Ars Electronica 1982.
(Excerpt from ORF Documentary about Ars Electronica 1982)

"Variations on a Theme by Saint-Saens", by Nam June Paik

I documented this version of Charlotte Moorman performing Nam June Paik's "Variations on a Theme by Saint-Saens" at the ORF Studios in Linz, Austria, on the occasion of the Sky Art Conference/Ars Electronica in 1982. This, and other performance art works by Paik and Moorman, were produced by the Center For Advanced Visual Studies, MIT, Cambridge, MA, under the coordination and vision of then-director Otto Piene. 

"Variations" represents one of Paik's best examples of Fluxus-based performance art. If you can dedicate the 7 minutes needed to watching this video, try to stay with it from beginning to end in order to enjoy the full effect.

Charlotte Moorman with Human Cello, performed with Nam June Paik 1965

Nam June Paik and Charlotte Moorman for T.V. Bra, 1969

Charlotte Moorman performing Nam June Paik’s TV Bra.

"Sky Kiss - Linz"
Otto Piene brought Charlotte Moorman to the Sky Art Conference/Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria in 1982 to perform "Sky Kiss". With the assistance of many volunteers, an array of helium-filled tubes was gathered together, and Charlotte and her cello were lifted off the ground in the vicinity of the Danube River.
The video begins with an interview I made of Charlotte on the roof top of her New York studio in 1982, just prior to the performance in Austria.


"Cut Piece"

Charlotte Moorman performed this version of Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" at the ORF Television Studios in Linz, Austria, for the Sky Art Conference/Ars Electronica in 1982. This is one of a series of performances by Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik that took place for this event (see "Sky Kiss - Linz"). I was fortunate to have the opportunity to record these performance art works on video for M.I.T.'s Center For Advanced Visual Studies.

Charlotte Moorman 1973

Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman Concerto for TV,Cell Videotapes 1971
performance with video monitors

Charlotte tells the story of the 1964 New City performance of Nam June Paik's piece, "the Opera Sextronic. The police interrupted the performance and arrested Charlotte. Her trial led to an opening up of censorship in the arts.
The video is one section of the work by Fred Stern, "Charlotte Morman and the New York Avante Garde" by Fred Stern. It was filmed in 1980 under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Cellist Charlotte Moorman performs Opera Sextronique
by Nam June Paik , 1967.