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?