Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler

 

            Tony Oursler creates installation art with the use of video.  Some of his most famous exhibitions contain figures and sculptural shapes with human faces projected onto them.   The faces are oddly distorted by the shape of the media they are projected onto and are often missing pieces, mostly noses.  The video projections of the human eyes and mouths are in almost constant motion.  They breathe, blink, and occasionally twitch.  This makes the resulting creature appear alive yet alien-like.  These installations are often humorous.  Tony Oursler also has other types of sculpture, which are mixed-media combinations.  These also have video projected onto them, but the material varies from human faces.  Instead, he creates small scenes within the sculptures.

            I like Tony Oursler’s use of projection in his installations.  I like the humorous quality that comes from the projection of faces onto the sculptural forms, and I am inspired by the way he brings those simple forms to life.  It is very convincing that they are looking around and making faces, yet since the human face is distorted, it is easy to believe they are a different life form.  I chose to research Tony Oursler because I also like the small scale at which he works with some of his other sculptures.  Oursler is able to make projection successful, even at small sizes.