Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Tony Oursler's Influence Machine

Tony Oursler (born 1957) is a New York based multimedia artist. I must admit I despise almost everything the man has ever produced. I find both his early and recent works to be conceptually and aesthetically offensive and generally puerile. However in 2000 he was commissioned by the Public Art Fund to create a series of works known both collectively and individually as the  "Influence Machine". These works may be somewhat subdued, pretty public art without the concupiscent orifices of his other projections, and in terms of conceptual or intellectual merit I can't exactly argue in their defense, however as pretty works of public art I find them so delightful I couldn't resist posting them.
T.J. Clark also wrote quite an interesting piece on Ousler's work as well as that of de Chirico and Manet for the MIT press, entitled Modernism, Postmodernism, and Steam, which is certainly worth reading if any of the images catch your fancy.












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