Artwork Page for Sex Plotter

Details / Information for Sex Plotter

Sex Plotter

1992

Tony Oursler

(American, b. 1957)
View all records in artwork set
Culture
America
Medium
cloth, hair, video projector, tripod
Measurements
Overall: 20 x 62 x 150 cm (7 7/8 x 24 7/16 x 59 1/16 in.)
Weight: 900 g (1.98 lbs.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2010.209.1
Copyright
© Tony Oursler
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Oursler, like many artists of his generation, believes that images––rather than firsthand experience––have come to define life. He is an acute interpreter of media and its pervasiveness. Part of the disassembled large-scale installation The Watching, these works together render the kind of macabre romance novel popularized in B movies and television and, ultimately, address Hollywood’s exploitation of violence and sex to manipulate its viewers. Sex Plotter is the projection of a taped performance by artist Constance DeJong, posing as a movie insider, onto a cloth effigy. She dispassionately narrates imaginary film plots of morbid love stories. Sex Plotter represented a turning point in Oursler’s work in 1992, when he pointed a portable projector—a novel technology at the time—onto a cloth effigy, essentially disembodying images and the performers from the TV monitor and injecting new life into the gallery space. Her stream-of-consciousness narrative is closer to thought process than film grammar. Instant Dummies are like grow-in-water toys that would swell to full-size synthetic humans. Enlarged to political-poster size on cloth, the transcript of Model Release Form is, verbatim, the legal document used by the movie industry that enables the reproduction and manipulation of any one person’s image. While emphasizing the profound alteration of personal identities in subjects, performers, and viewers alike, to Oursler, Model Release is emblematic of a perverse system by which seemingly anyone can become part of the Hollywood machine.
A vertically oriented mixed media sculpture on a wooden floor features a long, light blue patterned gown lying flat. Upper left, a face with light skin is projected onto its collar, framed by wavy brown hair. In the center, a black projector on a small tripod rests atop the gown, angled toward the face. Thin black cords trail toward a dark background. The gown extends diagonally toward the bottom right.

Sex Plotter

1992

Tony Oursler

(American, b. 1957)
America

See Also

Visually Similar by AI

Contact Us

The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please fill out the appropriate request form linked below:

Update or Correct Artwork Information

Imagery or Rights for Non-Open-Access Artworks

Report a Website Issue

Further Questions About This Artwork