“七号，加二或减二”托尼·奥斯勒个展

    开幕酒会：2010年2月6日 16：00－18：00
    展览时间：2010年2月6日－5月30日
    展览地点：林冠画廊－北京

    实验影像艺术家
 

    林冠画廊即将推出美国影像艺术家托尼·奥斯勒的中国首展。
 

    从上世纪70年代中期起，奥斯勒便是非常活跃的影像艺术先锋人物。今天，他依旧是影像艺术领域里最具影响力、实验性和创新性的艺术家。此次展览将带来奥斯勒从上世纪90年代初至今的系列投影装置作品。

    独特的习语
 

    托尼·奥斯勒的影像和装置作品风格尤为独特，结合了文字对白、表演、移动影像和雕塑实体。一般影像艺术家的惯常做法是将作品投影在匀称的界面上，但奥斯勒却选择了玩偶、球体、建筑，甚至是树稍和水蒸气等界面，可以说是把影像从“盒子”里彻底解放了出来。

    头部系列
 

    展览纵观奥斯勒在过去20年来的创作，策展重心落在其以人体头部为媒介的系列作品上。展出的所有作品都是基于人体头部以及头部作为意识渗透中心这个概念而进行的创作。作品论述了光、烟、思想、冲动、语言、声音、记忆等各种因素在与头部这个中心象征的互动过程中所体现出来的消长关系。

    展览作品
 

    最先迎接观者的是奥斯勒于90年代初创作的突破性作品《玩偶》。艺术家把人脸的影像投影在布偶上，形成了一个艺术和电影的混合体。这个会说话的小布偶挑战观者在欣赏艺术时所处的被动角色，激发他们对作品进行重新的认识和思考。

    进入展厅后是一组巨型的高清晰度投影《香烟》阵列。各种西方品牌的香烟在不同程度地燃烧着，质疑人们所沉迷或拒绝的各种冲动行径。同时，作品还有更深远的哲学意味，引导人们进行更广的联想和质疑。比如，高矮参差不齐的香烟柱列很容易让人联想到林立的建筑物和工业化城市的天际线，促使人们对人类社会高速发展的利弊展开思辨。

    作品《眼睛》是一组不停眨眼的大眼球，仿如漂浮在宇宙中的独立星球般分布在空间各处。以中国北宋诗人兼科学家沈括（1031－1095）最早在《梦溪笔谈》里所描述的针孔成像原理的历史为出发点，这个装置作品剖析了人们尝试通过科技逃离现实的欲望。

    随着对科技、媒介和观者的幻想的深入探讨，作品《FX》(电影特效的英文缩写)展示了一个在爆炸的火焰团中消失的头部。这个作品受到卖座大片和恐怖袭击等题材的启发，提出了一个带有讽刺意味的假设：如果爆炸在时间上被延续的话会出现什么状况？在这个装置中，原本在不到一秒钟内完成的情景在时间上获得了延伸，观者得以和地狱之火建立对话。

    最后，为满足人们素来对“经典”的需求，奥斯勒又幽默了一把。一个由一双眼睛和一张嘴拼贴组合出来的大头装置，在嘀咕着荒谬的对白，有趣的同时也让人厌烦——这个结合了传统的“笑脸”图标和电脑虚拟的3D化身“阿凡达”的作品，指出了人类创造科技以满足于各种欲望的现象。

    神奇的数字七，加二或减二
 

    展览的名称取自乔治·米勒于1956年所写的心理学著作《神奇的数字7，＋／－2》，阐述的是人类认知的有限性。心理学实验证明，人们很难一次性记住七种以上毫无关联的枯燥数据。米勒的研究提示，如果人们想要记住大量的信息，他们必须调动记忆的片断和各种数据建立起联系。

    科技和人性化
 

    托尼·奥斯勒一直关注我们的信息和媒体社会以及它对人类的影响，这也正是他的灵感来源。人们对不断增长的海量信息所体会到的不确定感，世界的碎片化，以及我们自身和社会的疏离等都是他众多作品里显而易见的主题。

    奥斯勒对高科技的巨大潜力非常着迷，尤其是非常接近现实的影像和电影。他用科技模拟人类和情感的特征——通过联系对白、移动影像和物体，奥斯勒创造了一系列人性化的影像雕塑和装置，轻易地在作品和人们之间架构起亲密的关系。

    正是这样一种视觉上富有说服力和幽默感的探讨当下重要的社会、心理问题和存在物体的方式，让托尼·奥斯勒成为当今世界上最重要的艺术家之一。

    Faurschou Beijing
    Tony Oursler
    Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
    06.02.10 – 30.05.10

    Experimental video artist

    It is with great pleasure that Faurschou Beijing presents a solo exhibition by the American video artist Tony Oursler, his first exhibition in China.

    Since the mid-1970s Oursler has been a pioneer in New Media Art, and today he is one of the very biggest, most experimental and innovative artists working in the field of the video medium. The exhibition will introduce the Chinese public to a survey of projected pieces from the early 90s to the present that will give a strong impression of this great artist’s work.

    Unique idiom
 

    Tony Oursler has become well known for his unique video and installation works, which combine spoken text, performance, moving images and sculptural objects. Unlike other video artists Oursler does not only project his works on a uniform surface but projects his video images on to dolls, balls, architecture and other surfaces such as treetops and clouds of steam. It has been said that the artist has freed the video image from the “box.”

    The Human Head
 

    In this survey of works from the past two decades the curatorial focus is on the head of the human body. All the works in the show are based on the head and the notion of the head as the permeable center of consciousness. The work addresses the ebb and flow of elements such as light, smoke, thoughts, impulses, language, voice, memory, which interact with this central icon.

    The Works
 

    The viewer is greeted by “Doll”, one of Oursler's first breakthrough projections on rag dolls from the early 90s. The classic figurative sculpture is fused with a projected face, forming a hybrid between art and cinema. The little talking figure tests the viewer’s empathy by challenging his passive role in art viewing.

    Entering the exhibition one has to pass through “Cigarettes” a series of oversized, tubular screens with high-definition projection. The effect is that of a smoldering, virtual forest of various Western brands of cigarettes. The viewer’s decision to indulge, or not, in various compulsive activities is called into question. This work also has further philosophical ramifications, including the pros and cons of progress as the columns seem to transform into architecture, or an industrial skyline.

    In another installation, “Eyes”, large blinking eyeballs are floating like independent planets in the universe. With its point of departure in the history of the camera obscura, first mentioned by the Chinese poet and scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095), this installation points to the eye as an anatomical analogue of our desire for escapism through technology.

    Continuing the exploration of technology, media and the viewer's fantasy, the installation “FX” (the abbreviation for special effects in the movie industry) is a multi-projection of a human head lost in a blaze of flames and explosions. Inspired by blockbuster cinema and terrorist activities, the work begins with an ironic, humorous premise: What would happen if the explosion was extended in time? In this installation something that would take place in a fraction of a second is stretched out in time, and the viewer can enter into a dialogue with an inferno.

    Ending the exhibition on a humorous note, Oursler meets the viewer's basic need for companionship with “Classic”. A head pieced together as a film collage of eyes and a mouth is uttering absurd sentences and statements. It is very amusing and disturbing too – and points to the way we mould technology to our desires, in the tradition of the "smiley face" and the “avatar” – the 3D representation of the interaction between human and machine.

    The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
 

    The exhibition takes its title from George Miller’s classic 1956 paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” – an essay about the limits on the capacity of human cognition. Psychological experiments have shown that people have a hard time remembering more than about seven unrelated pieces of really dull data all at once. The point of Miller’s research is that for human beings to remember large quantities of information they have to associate memory fragments with the various data.

    Technology and Humanity
 

    Tony Oursler’s video installations are influenced by exactly this: his interest in our information and media society and its effect on mankind. The uncertainty that many people feel in connection with the constantly growing flow of information, the fragmentation of the world and alienation from our own bodies and society is a conspicuous theme in many of his works.

    Oursler is fascinated by the enormous potential of new technologies, especially those which, like video and film, can get close to reality. Oursler uses technology to imitate human and emotional features – and by associating speech, moving images and objects Oursler creates video sculptures and installations that exhibit a humanity that can easily engage us.

    This visually convincing and humorous way of approaching current important social, psychological and existential subjects has made Tony Oursler one of the most important artists in the world today.