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114.
KILL POP-ART!! ROBOT-OPERA.
Flyer + envelope relating to Nam June Paik’s “Robot-Opera” (NY: 1964).
Flyer printed offset on white paper on both sides, with two mailing folds. 21.5x28cm. (unfolded). Illustrated with a Peter Moore photograph of Robot K-456 (named after a Mozart piano concerto), which, according to Paik’s biographer, was “a remote controlled robot that played audiotaped speeches by John F. Kennedy and defecated beans.”
The robot was created by Paik with the aid of Shuya Abe, who helped with the electronics, and the comic opera in which it starred was first performed in collaboration with Charlotte Moorman at Judson Hall during the second annual Avant Garde Festival. Years later, in 1978, Robert Rental featured an image of Robot K-456 on the sleeve of his “Paralysis/ACC” single.
Accompanied by the original envelope, stamped “Kill The Pop-Art!” in red and “Robot Opera Everywhere in New York” in blue.
Both items Fine.
