Shigeko Kubota. Nam June Paik. George Maciunas.
Three names that are inseparable in my memory.

My own life, as it was destined, became inseparable from their lives.

“You should put pebbles in your New York tap water jar, they will purify New York tap water,” Shigeko told me once, and I have been doing it since, and it works.

She was always there, but very humbly, almost invisible, standing in the very back. It was always Nam June Paik and George. She was a mother, she was a sister, and she was a nurse for both. Except when she came in with her video camera, recording it all. She was an artist then, one of the best there is.

In 1974, I invited Shigeko to run Anthology Film Archives video program. We had none till then. She gracefully accepted my invitation. Until 1981, when we had to relocate the Archives, Anthology was the heaven, and the most active video art place in the world. She was a mountain of energy and inspiration. She was amazing. And she still is. But always so humble. Always promoting others herself remaining invisible.

So it’s time that we see Shigeko Kubota as an artist, a supreme artist in the art she was so crucial in assisting. Her video/ electronic sculptures have been so rarely seen in public. Their modernity, their energy, their impact upon one’s entire sensory and mental body is electrifying. I can only try to imagine, and it’s not so easy to do, Shigeko Kubota’s contribution to her life’s friend, Nam June Paik. It must have been immense.

I cannot begin to tell you how much Shigeko Kubota had helped George Maciunas who had actually brought her to New York from Japan. They had a perfect working relationship that lasted to the end of George’s life. George always had only the best words for her. A Zen love of a special kind. Both were very special, very very special.

I am so happy to see this exhibition become a reality. Something was missing in the art world but now it’s here. Shigeko Kubota is her name.