Record Schallplatten Schaschlik, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television, Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal

Record Schallplatten Schaschlik, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television, Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal

Manfred Montwé took a picture of Record Schallplatten Schaschlik, one of the works featured in Nam June Paik’s first solo show, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television held at Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, in March 1963. In the gallery’s basement, a record player with a turntable was installed above a radio with a built-in amplifier and speaker. Ten vinyl records were randomly skewered to the elongated axis of the spinning turntable. Another similar pile of ten records was connected to the turntable with a rubber belt, rotating at the same speed—visitors holding a magnetic cartridge randomly scratch wherever they wanted. As the record pile looked like a skewered kebab, this work was entitled Record Schallplatten Schaschlik, borrowing the word ‘shashlik.’ This photograph shows Tomas Schmit demonstrating this work.