Neon TV – Heaven and Earth, 1990, Mixed media (TV monitor, neon, Watchman), 58 × 65 × 28 cm

Neon TV – Heaven and Earth is part of Nam June Paik’s Neon TV series, in which the artist transforms the television from a medium of image transmission into a sculptural structure that reveals the flow of signals and the vibration of light. Composed of a TV monitor, neon, a Sony Watchman, vacuum tubes, and metal antennas, the work visualizes the conversion of electronic signals into light and color. Circular neon rings reminiscent of Saturn encircle the screen, while layers of red and black paint overlap across the glass surface. As a result, the television no longer functions as a device for reproducing external images but becomes an emitter, an autonomous universe where signals and interference operate freely.Neon TV – Heaven and Earth exposes the dual nature of television as both a receiver that captures broadcast signals and a transmitter that emits light and images. Paik translated the medium’s physical principles into a visual language, embracing signal interference and noise as chance-based compositional elements. Here, the electronic circuit functions not as a mere technical mechanism but as a new conduit for sensory experience. For Paik, television was not a channel of information but a self-generating world in which signals and energy produced images of their own. Through its emergent rather than broadcast imagery, Neon TV – Heaven and Earth reveals how electronic media can transform into an artistic language at the intersection of perception, signal, and matter.