Tony Oursler, American pioneer of media art, is one of the most accomplished and well-known artists of his generation when it comes to questions of fiction and reality, collective search for meaning and individual confusion. With the works “Eclipse” and “Specular”, he presents two works that deal with the peculiarities of the media age.

“Specular” narrows this theme down to one image: the human eye in close-up while looking at a screen. The information being consumed is reflected on the shiny surface of the eyes. These video sequences from the “Obscura” series, which has been running since 1996, are shown on three spheres of different dimensions, which were created in 2021 for an exhibition at Kunstraum Dornbirn.

Oursler explores the creative and destructive energy of conspiracy theories such as moon landing denial, the Illuminati, 5G/COVID-19 causality, chemtrails and the pseudoscience of iridology (iris diagnostics) and psychedelics. These elements are incorporated into the viewer’s eyes through literal reflection in the macro shots and various special effects. Oursler shows a paradoxical position of the recipients, who seem to be more interested in models of the world than in the world itself.

Tony Oursler (b. 1957) is considered a pioneer of American media art and is internationally regarded as one of the most accomplished artists of his generation. His works deal with questions of fiction and reality, collective search for meaning and individual confusion in the context of society as a whole.