The installations of Tony Oursler, an American installation artist, create a synthesis of video works, sculptures and environment installations. Ourslers installation art is aimed to be perceived emotionally by the viewer. Many of his works involve the projection of moving images onto everyday inanimate objects. The use of sound heavily affects the atmosphere of his exhibitions and plays a large part in making them an emotional experience.
Much of Ourslers work includes an assemblage of facial features (eyes, mouths, noses etc) for example, the exhibition ‘eyes’ held in 1999. This installation turned a gallery into a planetarium of suspended eyeballs that created a vision of disembodied gazes, stares and blinks. “I have a theory which is that all people are most attracted to the face. It carries the most information about us for many reasons. The rest of the body is inconsequential in comparison. Thus, the evolution of the close-up and the talking head on television” Tony Oursler.
Bull's Balls, 1997
“The transmigration of the face and what it signs has always been of interest to me, even since my first tapes in the 70s. The personification of the bull’s testicles in this exhibition is a logical extension of that exploration" Tony Oursler.
I feel that Tony Ourslers work, to be fully appreciated and understood, would need to be experienced in person. His art is an experience that aims to provoke emotion and create atmosphere. The photographs and descriptions of his work that I have researched cannot effectively convey the full effect of Ourslers exhibitions.
Mirror Maze (Through Dead Eyes)
I found this weeks research to be fairly difficult. The books that I found on Tony Oursler, I thought to be quite 'full on' and I found myself struggling to digest the information within. I feel perhaps that I should read more books written in such a way so I can better understand the language that they are written in, so my research will flow a little easier in the future.
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