week 5- Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler experiments with installation works, using mainly video projection onto flat and 3 dimensional surfaces e.g. dolls, balls, architecture and living/mobile surfaces such as treetops and clouds of steam. According to the artists website he has been said to have 'freed the video image from the "box."...creating a hybrid of art and cinema'. He is regarded as one of the unique, revolutionary contemporary artists of modern times. The curatorial focus of Tony Ourslers works from the past two decades has been the human head. The works present the notion of the head as the ‘permeable center of consciousness’. His installations also address the ebb and flow of natural and mental elements e.g. light, smoke, thoughts, impulses, language, voice, memory- all of which interact with the central icon the human head. The artists installations are influenced by the artists interest in our information and media society and its effect. The elements listed previously are expressive of this interest as they use video technology as the central medium and create a strong relationship with humanity through the subject matter (the human head and in particular the eye). I imagine the artist uses public reaction from his engaging work to further his understanding of technological effect on human thought.
Ourslers’ work "Eyes" is fascinating as it evokes both a curiosity and understanding of thoughts entering and being exuded from the human eye. large blinking eyeballs are floating like independent planets in the universe; this installation ‘points to the eye as an anatomical analogue of our desire for escapism through technology’ according to the artists website. I understand this to mean that the eye has the potential to transport the mind; ironic really, as the audiences’ mind is literally transported as we view his work whilst his work simultaneously communicates this meaning. His work “Eyes” can be seen in the image below.

Number 7, Plus or Minus 2

Particular concepts of the enlightenment can be applied to Ourslers’ work. Using his multiple burning cigarettes projection form 2009 (image below) the ideologies of reason, empiricism, science, universalism and progress can all be discussed. Reason and rationality can be applied as the work is immediately striking to the viewers’ conscience; smoking is known to impact negatively on human health and whether the viewer is a smoker or non smoker the work makes one consider the actual value of smoking. Empiricism is the idea that facts about the natural world can be apprehended through sense organs. In this case we cannot smell the cigarettes but we can see the process of them burning and instinctually predict that the product will be ash, we also instinctually sense heat from the large PVC cigarettes though it is not physically being produced. The transformation of the burning cigarette into ash is literally a scientific one, but science is also apparent in the work as it brings to mind the effect of smoking on human health, an awareness that scientific research has validated and spread. Different brands of cigarettes from all over the world are displayed, creating the idea that smoking is a universal behavior; this hence makes the work universally relevant. Perhaps awareness of the negative effects of smoking on the human body will be spread by this work, hence lessening the number of worldwide smokers, this in itself would be progress.

Marlboro, Winston, Parliament, American Spirit, Salem, 2009

Dimensions variable. PVC tubes, video projection

Reference:

http://www.tonyoursler.com/individual_work_slideshow.php?navItem=work&workId=8&startDateStr=Feb.%206,%202010&subSection=Installations&allTextFlg=false&title=Number%207,%20Plus%20or%20Minus%202

Extract from: Hamilton, P. (1992). The Enlightenment and the birth of social science, in Hall, S. & Gieben B. (eds.), Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Open University Press (pp. 21-22)