AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

Nam June Paik's Who's Your Tree is a monumental, site-specific video installation that has been a centerpiece of the Indianapolis Museum of Art's contemporary collection since its creation in 1996. The artwork is a large-scale tree-shaped video installation composed of 31 thirteen-inch cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs to make up “leaves and branches” and three twenty-five-inch CRT TVs for the “trunk.” The video contents feature iconic symbols and representations of Indiana including drag races, the state flag, native wildlife, and residents of the Hoosier state. The videos mirror the Indiana state flag with 19 stars and torch images and provides a familiar entry for Hoosier audiences to engage with TBM.  

Despite its significance, Who's Your Tree was entombed in a walled-off gallery for more than thirteen years due to frequent breakdowns of the TVs and limited spaces where the fifteen-foot-tall installation can fit within the galleries. Without thorough documentation, institutional lore about the condition and functionality teemed with contradictions. But, in the autumn of 2021, the artwork was selected as a high-priority inclusion for an exhibition of contemporary art at the museum. With less than two years to undertake the needed preparations, and scarce monetary resources, it was clear that collaboration with colleagues throughout the IMA and beyond would be critical to successfully treating this important work for the collection. 

As TBM ages, conservation teams without TBM specialists may be tasked with addressing the issues posed by these multifaceted objects. This talk will explain how, with few resources and little time, the IMA built a team to address these challenges and ultimately succeeded in getting this important work back on view. The talk will address the essential nature of collaboration to this effort and the complex stories of the artwork’s place in the IMA’s collection for nearly 3 decades.  Lastly, this talk will discuss the many possible futures for this work include digitizing the three video files to be able to play them on media players instead of DVD players as well as continue researching and testing possibilities for the eventual retrofitting of the original CRT technology with updated screens within the current monitor based on precedents from several other ground-breaking Nam June Paik treatments at other institutions.