Tony Oursler is known as the American pioneer multimedia and installation artist. He tried to bring the virtual images to reality by videos, sculptures, and performance art, forming his unique way to present his works.
Oursler was born in 1957, New York. Influenced by his family, he got interested in art and finally graduated from the California Institute of the Arts. In his undergrad, his teacher John Mandell’s ideas toward art enlightened him to reflect on tv Media and drama performance. He started to create his work with various forms of the method.
His famous form of art is projecting human faces on spheres or other shapes, like dolls, daily supplies, white objects even extending to outdoor spaces. As if they are the living sculpture that can whisper, shout, twitch, and even terrifying because of the audience’s gaze. Humor, satire, and magical technique plus handmade props create manual fun.
Social media brought him many inspirations to discuss the relationship between individual and popular culture and modern technology. Also, the impact of new media on humans. He said, ‘My early idea of what could be art for my generation was an exploded TV.’ Animation, montage, and performance all became the source of inspiration for his later creation. The boundary between nature and humans becomes blurred, now it is not only multimedia but also a theater and fantasy atmosphere which guides the viewer to travel between virtual and real.
The Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno art director, Omar-Pascual said that Tony Oursler is an extremely complex artist. He is too malleable, too unfettered, too experimental that not follow the mainstream. He cannot use a passive perspective to know his work, but rediscover and recognize it every time to experience the unexpected from Tony Oursler.
Tony Oursler launched his solo exhibitions in many museums and galleries. In 2011, Osler was invited to participate in the 54th Venice Biennale’s parallel exhibition about glasses. In 2005, its retrospective ‘Dispositifs’ was exhibited at the National Tennis Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France, the DA2 Contemporary Art Museum in Salamanca, Spain, and the Kunstfriedan Showroom in Copenhagen, Denmark. In February 2013, the Tate Modern in London exhibited installation works that made the audience immersive-"The Influence Machine”. Besides, his work is included in many institutions.
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts originally scheduled ‘Black Box: Tony Oursler’ in early April this year. However, it was postponed due to the coronavirus. For this exhibition, Tony Oursler seeks a Taiwanese child to project his/her face in an artwork. The museum has already opened an online pre-exhibition to let the audience get the first glimpse.
Kaohsiung Museum Of Fine Arts
Tony Oursler, Black Box
2021.1.23 - 2021.05.16
Figure one：PriV%te ©Tony Oursler
Figure two top left：artist Tony Oursler ©Tony Oursler
Figure two left bottom：Tear of the Cloud ©Tony Oursler
Figure two top right：Obscura ©Tony Oursler
Figure two right bottom：PriV%te ©Tony Oursler
