
Not on display
- Artist
- Tony Oursler born 1957
- Medium
- Wood, fabric and video, projection, colour
- Dimensions
- Unconfirmed: 2000 × 1500 × 1500 mm
duration: 16 min., 33 sec. - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1996
- Reference
- T07056
Summary
Oursler commented on his 'autochthonous' series of 1995 to which Autochthonous AAAAHHHH belongs: '
they imply that there is a darker drama going on precisely because the viewer can't hear but rather is compelled to imagine an aggressive, antagonistic voice; in other words, there is a collaboration with the darker side.' (Janus, p.123.) The artist wrote the text for these pieces with the idea of violation in mind, particularly violation as imagined by the female, for example in an alien abduction (Janus, p.123). Oursler's work is fed by such accounts circulating in popular culture and the influence of these stories on the individual unconscious. In the early 1990s, when he introduced dummies into his work, the artist began to explore the psychosis-inducing effect of mass media on the individual. The sinister video-activated dummy provided the conjunction between psychic life and external reality (Janus, p.120-1). Autochthonous AAAAHHHH plays back to the viewer the frightening possibility of the demons inside themselves: '
they're the most distant pieces, I think, because it is about isolation, its about a battle that only one person can have
at that point you are alone
it's a lonely place that that woman is in
' (Lewison interview with Oursler, unpaginated.)
Further reading:
Elizabeth Janus, 'Towards a Psychodramatic Grammar of Moving Images: A Conversation with Tony Oursler', Tony Oursler, exhibition catalogue, capcMusée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux 1998, pp.119-126
Simona Lodi, 'Empathy, Mutation, Audience', 'Video is like Water' (interview with Tony Oursler), Tony Oursler, Galleria 1000eventi, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1998, pp.11-29
Jeremy Lewison and Tony Oursler, unpublished transcript of interview, TAV 1553A, Tate Gallery archives, London 1996, unpaginated
Kathleen Brunner
March 2000
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
You might like
-
Bill Viola Catherine’s Room
2001 -
Peter Campus Anamnesis
1973 -
Bill Viola Nantes Triptych
1992 -
Tony Oursler The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Never Seen
1995 -
Andrea Zittel A-Z Comfort Unit with Special Comfort Features by Dave Stewart
1994–5 -
Mona Hatoum Measures of Distance
1988 -
Sam Taylor-Johnson OBE Brontosaurus
1995 -
Mark Wallinger Hymn
1997 -
Yael Bartana Kings of the Hill
2003 -
Susan Hiller Psi Girls
1999 -
Catherine Sullivan The Chittendens: The Resuscitation of Uplifting
2005 -
Paul McCarthy Painter
1995 -
Victor Alimpiev Sweet Nightingale
2005 -
Rosângela Rennó Experiencing Cinema
2004–5 -
Tony Oursler The Influence Machine
2000