Alien Eye
Artist
Tony Oursler
(American, b. 1957)
CultureAmerican
Date1996
MediumFiberglass, acrylic, and video projector
DimensionsOverall: 9 in. (22.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Chrysler Contemporaries, May 2, 2002
Object number2002.4
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 226
Label TextTony Oursler American, b. 1957 Alien Eye, 1996 Fiberglass, acrylic, and video projector …the isolated organ of the eye is incapable of showing emotion, which resides in the face which surrounds it. Real eyes are not so easy to read and people focus a lot of attention on them, trying to find something inside them. They are organs which constantly seek and watch and are in turn being watched. –Tony Oursler Tony Oursler’s dreamlike work grapples with the belief that the eye is a window to one’s soul. The artist used a video camera to capture a woman’s eye movements and then projected the moving image onto a painted fiberglass ball. Alien Eye darts around in response to the woman’s thoughts, emotions, and surroundings. Yet, as the pupil expands and contracts, the eye only partially reflects what the woman is seeing. At once revealing and concealing her inner thoughts, the cyclopic sculpture also conjures the idea of surveillance in our digital age. Gift of the Chrysler Contemporaries 2002.4 ProvenanceTony Oursler studio, New York, 1996; Metro Pictures, New York, 2002; Gift of the Chrysler Contemporaries to the Chrysler Museum of Art, May 2, 2002. Exhibition History"Remix: A Fresh Look At Our Modern And Contemporary Art Collections," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia, November 2, 2011 - March 17, 2012.Published ReferencesMichael Kimmelman, "A Sculptor Of the Air With Video," _The New York Times_ (April 27, 2001): E27, E29.
Pair/Pair