Taken by Manfred Montwé, Listening to Music through the Mouth was one of the works featured in Nam June Paik’s first solo show, Exposition of Music — Electronic Television held at Galerie Parnass, Wuppertal, in March 1963. A cartridge was removed from an antique record player, and a phallic object was mounted instead. Placing a needle on the record, one would hold the phallic device in the mouth and listen to the record by feeling its vibrations. Paik transformed the organ that makes sound into one that hears the sound, tagged with an erotic connotation. According to Montwé’s recollections, Paik asked him to take a special picture, and in the morning when there was no visitor, Paik tried Listening to Music through the Mouth himself, to be photographed.
