Image of Video Flag XGrid of small video screens arranged like a flag, displaying shifting patterns of blue fields with white stars and horizontal bands of red, white, and abstract imagery. The screens vary slightly in color and motion, creating a flickering, electronic interpretation of the American flag in Video Flag X by Nam June Paik.

Lectures

Nam June Paik: Video Flag x

Wednesday, May 27

5:30 PM

Ticket Details

Free with General Admission

American Sign Language (ASL) Available

Location

Lecture Hall

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Tri-County Residents get in free with ID

Hosted by the DIA’s Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art, this dynamic talk invites DIA conservators and curators to share insights from the museum’s multi-year initiative to research and restore this iconic artwork.

Beloved since its debut at the DIA in 1986, Video Flag x will return to public view in the museum’s newly reimagined contemporary galleries, opening in late 2026.

A video art pioneer, Paik was among the first artists to embrace television as an art-making medium. In Video Flag x, the Korean-born artist explores the layered meanings embedded within one of America’s most powerful national symbols: the American flag. Manipulating snippets from the nightly news, Paik assembled a grid of eighty-four televisions to form the stars and stripes of the American flag. As Paik once said, “Television will never be the same.”

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Lead support for the restoration of Video Flag x is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support is provided by the Alan Kidd Trust, Gordon W. Draper Trust, Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation, Ms. Carleen Van Voorhies and Rebecca & Jake Grove.

IMAGE CREDIT: Nam June Paik, Video Flag x, 1985. 84 10-inch Quasar televisions, 3 channels of video (color), Laserdiscs, Laserdisc players, acrylic cabinet. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Lila and Gilbert B. Silverman, F1986.40.

Nam June Paik: Video Flag x

Wednesday, May 27

5:30 PM

Ticket Details

Free with General Admission

Tri-County Residents get in free with ID

American Sign Language (ASL) Available

Location

Lecture Hall

See on Map Hide Map

Tags

Lectures Curatorial Conversation Free Evening

Lecture Speakers

Liz Homberger

Liz Homberger is responsible for the preservation of objects in the DIA’s collection, ranging from contemporary installation art to 15th century sculpture to ceremonial headdresses from the Akan. Before joining the DIA in 2018, Liz was Associate Conservator of Objects at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art where she served as the conservation lead for over 30 exhibitions and coordinated the multi-year conservation treatment of an 18th century room from Damascus, Syria. Liz earned her MA in Conservation from SUNY Buffalo State College in New York and her BA from Bard College.  She is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation and has held positions at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Denver Art Museum

Katie Pfohl

Katie A. Pfohl is a curator and writer who works to amplify the voices of artists, foster connections between communities, and create space to engage with the urgent issues of our time. Since 2022, she has served as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Detroit Institute of Arts. At the DIA, she is organizing a major reinstallation of the museum's contemporary galleries, slated to open in 2026. Most recently, Pfohl curated Tiff Massey: 7 Mile + Livernois, the DIA’s most ambitious show for a Detroit artist in its history, which brought almost a quarter of a million visitors to the DIA. From 2015-2022, she was Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art, where she curated almost 30 exhibitions, acquired or commissioned over 100 works of art, and reinstalled the museum’s twentieth century and contemporary galleries. In 2014, Pfohl completed her Ph.D. in art history at Harvard University, and in 2006 she participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York. Pfohl has held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the LSU Museum of Art.  