About the Work
Tony Oursler’s Untitled (Talking Photograph) is a disturbing still of a woman lying on the side of her head, her eyes open and slightly rolled back, her mouth relaxed and open as if she were unconscious. The dark shadow from above is juxtaposed with the bright white fabric on which her head is resting, and on her cheek is the imprint of a second female face, alert as if ready to say something, glowing in a demonic, bright red and orange light. Mysterious and dark, the image, accompanied by a soundtrack, has a disturbingly intriguing sadistic touch.
About the Artist
Tony Oursler works across a range of mediums: video, sculpture, installation, performance, and painting. Through technology, he explores the human psyche and its emotional disturbances like obsession, isolation, sexual fetish, escapism, and the relationship with computers and virtual platforms that dominate our lives today.
In his most famous installations, Tony Oursler creates scenes of disfigured, immobile bodies sculpted from nylon with video projections of moving faces on their heads. In some cases, Oursler projects fragmented facial features onto walls and bulbous sculptures, creating an eerie juxtaposition of animate and inanimate figures. He often places decapitated heads in uncomfortable positions on the floor or installed alongside props as more faces projected onto the heads spew a narrative. Directly engaging and “trapping” the viewer is Oursler’s primary concern in art-making.
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