Figure 7
Tony Oursler
b. 1957, New York, New York
Getaway #2
Mattress, cloth, video projector, laser disk player, and laser disk; overall dimensions variable.
“All homes have a certain amount of violence,” believes Tony Oursler, whose Getaway #2 depicts a painful and humiliating domestic scene. By combining sculpture with technoloy, Oursler transforms ordinary objects–a make-shift pillow, a pair of pajamas, a mattress, and a video projector–into an evocation of an angry, tragic character: a woman trapped under a mattress. We respond to her with both puty and fear as she verbally insults and threatens us. At the same time, we sympathize with this trapped and helpless “dummy.”
The roles of victim and aggressor are fused here, creating what the artist calls a “fractured self.” “Our culture is obsessed with the whole horror-sex-violence thing…. We love to watch it, and I’m obsessed by the fact that we love to watch it.”
–Beth Venn and Cathy Kimball
Photograph: ©1998, Whitney Museum of American Art
Artwork ©Tony Oursler.