Art & Technology #23: Tony Oursler

In the 1970s, Oursler mostly presented single-channel videos that exposed taboos in the commercial and film industries. Explicit psychological descriptions were a trademark, and he starred in his own work as an actor in order to express his many sides. In the 1990s, the artist’s video work began a new chapter with developments in digital media. It was during this period that he established a strong visual language, using elements of media installation and video sculpture. Oursler experimented with image processors, beam projectors, computer editing software, liquid crystal screens, and LCD projectors, the results of which were turned into life-like videos. And with objects replacing monitors, as mentioned above, characters in the videos seemed to pop out from the screen. Through his work, the artist proposed the notion that the psychological effect of the television on the public was a form of psychopathological phenomenon. He highlighted sources of influence in mass media, such as newspapers, TV, and films to cleverly demonstrate realities where people are completely immersed in TV and ultimately governed by technology. One of his most well-known works at the time was <The Watching>, presented at ‘Documenta IX’ in 1992 and the first instance of the artist using dolls instead of a monitor with the aid of a small LCD projector.

Viewers immerse themselves in the film with a modern reinterpretation of Pepper’s ghost(a phantasmagorical effect devised by John Pepper and Henry Dircks in 1862 for theater stages) and a 4D cinematic environment featuring sensory effects. The artist also integrates his continued interests in mysticism, psychedelic art, mass media, and media history to disclose the irrational relationship between belief systems and authenticity of an image. In order to show the intersecting point between technological developments of the last century and occult phenomena, he uses frightening, macabre, and sometimes theatrical humor. It seems that all the dynamic elements that have appeared in his works are collected in this single film.

Tony Oursler is an American video and installation artist born in New York in 1957. He studied at the California Institute for the Arts. He has held solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Musée d'Orsay. His work has been collected by MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art(LACMA), and the Centre Georges Pompidou.