Tony Oursler

I once did a drawing in my sketchbook (I say drawing but I’m not very good at it); the drawing depicted figures that had combined the elements of my use of bamboo as a strong material existing as the limbs of a figure that exists in a fragile nature, as well as an amorphous figure cast as a hollow plastic body and containing a head that is a video screen. The screen would depict a confused human-like expression, questioning its existence and contemplating its place in the world. Whether the figure would be placed within its own narrative, or if it was a commentary on my fabricated idea that we as a culture would one day try to combine nature and technology and fail at it, resulting in a confusing race of amorphous forms. I had nearly forgot this drawing and at the time that I drew it I had no concept of how such a piece would be made. All thoughts came flooding back as I looked at the work of Tony Oursler, whom aesthetically and conceptually has increasingly become one of my favorite contemporary artists working today.

Oursler has remained interested in how technology makes individuals feel uneasy despite its commonplaceness and its penetrating impact on global society. He embraces technology as an artist tool not because it was hip or trendy, but because he saw it as a means of probing the inner self…This hits it spot on for me, I’ve often felt that my new interest in technology as a tool could easily be misguided and misunderstood, but I do feel like Oursler that it should be embraced as a tool to explore the inner self and our relationship with technology.

Oursler’s constructions cut across multiple media – sculpture, painting, photography, video drawing, video/digital projection, space, and CD-ROM. This is where I want to be and the goals that I strive to achieve dwell within a similar multifaceted practice. As I move forward and explore the work that I want to make, I want to be able to pick up whatever tool necessary to explore my ideas and I feel Oursler is an excellent source for inspiration.

It is good for me to see Oursler’s work in the sense that it can help me learn to break out of the boundaries of a flat surface and explore other ways to involve media in works. In May 2003 he introduced a new brand of mutants. Stepping inside, viewers could imagine that the toons from Roger Rabbit had taken up residence in the gallery. I like the layers that his creations contain and I think this is something that I have not put enough thought into my own work. Of course the viewers are always going to have their own interpretations of your work, but it is the careful choices you make when conducting a work that can help guide the viewer toward your intention. His poignantly fictitious inventions highlight states of loneliness, isolation, and miscommunication–despite the frequently comical look of the toon-like fabrications.

Oursler also introduces sound to his humanoid creations. They say phrases such as ‘No! No! No!’ or ‘Do it!’ He gives voice to the mortified, the lonely, the abandoned. Continually I become more and more increasingly interested in audio as a medium and Oursler’s use of audio is smart in that there is human interaction that occurs between the viewer and the work, giving a character that would be over looked the power to be contemplated.

Harper, Glenn, and Twylene Moyer. A Sculpture Reader: Contemporary Sculpture since 1980. Hamilton, NJ: ISC, 2006. Print.

Rebecchi, Llaria. ""Open Obscura": Tony Oursler's Exhibition in Milan." King's Road Magazine. 23 Mar. 2011. Web.

Rush, Michael. Video Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Print.