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Tony Oursler

Tony Oursler was born in 1957 New York City. He received a BFA from the California Institute for the Arts in 1979. His work is comprised of video and installations involving video projections of distorted faces and figures on fiberglass sculptures. He seems to have an interest in neurosis, psychosis and inner mental turmoil which he reflects through a almost nightmarish hallucinatory visual and audio experience. Oursler continues to live and work in NYC.

artist's website
http://www.tonyoursler.com/
videos
http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$tapedetail?EVOL
installations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=licQZBwn7ys&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31r2Id390g&feature=related
interviews
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH9t5ohL89c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-s4xzB5D2Q&feature=related
pieces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aqIk_ynVak&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giROCwGx9wo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHp_vGWAaaM

The Journey Within
3:25
The Journey Within is a video self-portrait that focuses on confliciting self-images and discovering the differences between an inner impression of oneself and the external impression held by others. At times what one feels about oneself is at odds with what society sees. Sometimes we feel good but look bad; sometimes its the other way around.

She-Puppet by Peggy Ahwesh is a short film using clips of the character Lara Croft from the video game Tomb Raider as played by the artist with added narrated excerpts from Sun Ra, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The video depicts a young woman on a journey through distant lands filled with peril and danger, unexpected alliances and revelations. As the artist leads Lara through various stages of the game, it seems that she plays rather poorly at times letting Lara die over and over again. It becomes apparent soon enough that this is done on purpose and that the point of the video is not to show off her gaming skills but rather to make a comment about life. We empathize with her repeated failings as she dies over and over and over again, seemingly by her own design. She is immortal and the game never ends which of course brings to mind our own mortality. The mystical, soul-seeking speech adds an impression of poetry and sadness. What Ahwesh has done is given Lara Croft a soul and yet at the same time questions whether a person is in full command of their life at any point in time or are we held mercy to the whim of a capricious creator, the victims of circumstance?

200 tidbits about me

one-of-a-kind. only child. mixed-breed mutt beast. native san antonian. grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. eastside, southside, downtown stomping grounds. sunday-school dropout. ninth in my class without trying. yeah, cool like that. laid-back. easy-going. procrastinating "creative type." part-time poet. painter because painting is pain...and a pleasure. does that make me a masochist? photographer of the damned. closet musician. karaoke killer. legend in my own mind. quiet but not shy. myopic but not blind. thrift-store junkie. procurer of the strange and unusual. cat lady. pack rat. heart attack in the making. friendly neighborhood fortune teller. chain smoker. dancing queen. rock n' roll. retard. nerdy nerd. four eyes. bleeding heart. artsy fart. snoozer. boozer. late. always late. will be late to my funeral. fashionably. sweetheart. true friend. lover and a fighter. shoulder to cry on. cheerleader. survivor. keeper of secrets. liar, liar, pants on fire. master of the obvious. hidden. in-between. wishy-washy. chaotic. content. i think too much sometimes but still act the fool. pity party of one. i like anyone, everyone, no one at all. vice versa. this shop girl says: "thank you, have a nice day...."

Vik Muniz and appropriation

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvIPbUaPrl-HeasD3oVNXkShqjPDK80NLn5eTBwqB0ZtRL8VzkP07CdJ00NdVvVa_2rJkaUB432KROlDFv_JFWkfMWw6m9C7zz2o_IIsjklalevB5bKHOuh3gmSAhli0CiivrFdvdtv4eZ/s1600-h/vik+muniz.jpg

Vik Muniz is an artist who frequently appropriates from existing art and photographs and recreates those images in unusual mediums which he then photographs. He has taken the Mona Lisa and recreated it in peanut butter and jelly, and redone The Last Supper in chocolate. Yummy! In this example Muniz has recreated Goya's Saturn Devouring His Children out of found objects such as tires, ladders and oil barrels. A lot of the works Muniz appropriates fall into the public domain so there aren't a lot of copyright issues to deal with.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hXr9mfkrIKIKbuZIAl3g0BfxgX12O2yXmuHJGrqf8ngehdjA7pPrJVdElkd9GwQAy-YL3zoGHZ7XMqP2siQLO9Yw9PuMhHdRc434_Tz0lZ1NQ2Vzeg0T6NX_0q1B7wICRYOeLJT8um5e/s1600-h/muniz_action_large1.jpg

Muniz has used some modern images as well such as this photo of Jackson Pollock painting. In this image Muniz has successfully transformed the original photo into a new photo through the use of chocolate syrup. In this case the original was a sort of documentary type photograph. It appears to be a substantial portion or possibly the entire photograph has been appropriated. It is highly doubtful this work would have any negative impact on the market value of the original. Therefore, this work is probably protected under Fair Use. Whats interesting about Muniz's work is that it could be argued that his photographs are only documents of his installations or temporary artworks since the pieces are made out of food items or temporary arrangements and not really tangible works at all. Very sticky stuff...

Blue Screen Dismemberment

Blue-screen theatrics are so cheesy. Big fat cheese puffs of fun! So of course, when our group was faced with the task of creating a short video clip using blue-screen, we immediately thought of disembodied heads and limbs. I mean, who wouldn't, right? I know I enjoy me some fine floating heads in the middle of a hastily crafted plot. You know you do too. And wow, the effect was surprisingly easy to achieve. Just hide your body behind the blue drape, fiddle with a few things in Final Cut and voila! Instant decapitation, quick and painless, no animals harmed in the making of these cheetos. But seriously though, blue screen is where the magic happens in video land. And while it's easy to do, it's so hard to make it look good. Hence, its hokey reputation because it's usually painfully, blaringly obvious that something is out of place, something doesn't look right. The devil is in the details, all those little things like lighting, scale, perspective that are often inconsistent between the background and foreground. But if you can keep those things in check, or else make those discrepancies work for you, then you have a fighting chance of creating something cool.