The two artists I am going to talk about are Yasumasa Morimura and Tony Oursler. Yasumasa Morimura is a Japanese appropriation artist who takes historic artwork or photographs and reconstructs them with him being the subject with the use of photoshop, prosthetics and much more. Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist who plays with so many different mediums to show a variety of emotions and social issues.
Yasumasa Morimura was born in 1951 and loves to push boundaries with his artwork, his most well known series is “Daughter of Art History,” where he transformed himself into the star characters like Frida Kahlo or the iconic Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. Morimura is influenced by Cindy Sherman and in all of his works, he hints on gender and identity. He is so precise in every role he does, diving deep into artificial breasts or other additions in order to make his versions self-portraits of the original, but also not losing himself in the image. He once said his art, “bring[s] them back to life as things of the present. A bit like reconstituting freeze-dried tofu and serving it up again to eat now.” The artwork I chose to analyze is his mimic of Manet’s Olympia. This piece was done in 1988 in New York and it is simply titled Portrait (Futago). Not only is he the main woman, Olympia, he is also her black maid, which he created through computer technology and splicing the figures into the background of the original painting. In his version, Morimura has hints of Japanese culture throughout, like an elaborate kimono on the bed instead of a flowered blanket and a black lucky cat statue instead of a regular cat at the end of the bed. He gives the entire picture more color and character and highlighted the background to better see both characters and more detail.
Original Manet
Morimura's Portrait (Futago) (1988)
Tony Oursler was born in 1957 and has been known for being quite an eccentric artist. He plays with a variety of mediums with every installation he does, and he always makes sure his work has so many levels of meaning. Oursler is always concerned with social issues, whether they are environmental or substance abuse or even technology with the media. This installation was made in 1996 in New York as well and is titled, Untitled. It consists of a bunch of video projections of eyes onto thirteen fiberglass globes with soundtracks and noises playing throughout. The globes are about the size of basketballs and were hung almost as a galaxy in the room with a single eye on each of them, which were either darting, squinting, weeping or slowly opening as if in shock or disbelief. The eyes held in them some unfolding drama from video games, to a television show, to even porn and more. Individual soundtracks were played for each “planet,” and the audio completed a metaphor for media culture and all the drama that comes along with it. Definitely seems like a project that is better to see in person than in a photograph.
Oursler's Untitled (1996)
These two works of art are vastly different, but the artists themselves are not polar opposites. Morimura’s art can be amusing and comical, but it also dives into self-identity and the binary of gender. His series in incorporating historical pieces is from the 80’s, and yet, it touches on conversations that are held today on gender and race with everything centered on whitewashing and on defining the lines on males and females. Oursler’s art is all about the performance based on technology’s effect on humanity. His art can be humorous or downright disturbing, but the commentary is always powerful and meaningful.
Portrait seems so natural, and even though I find it odd that Morimura made the maid more light skinned in order to put himself into the character, it is a purposeful rendering. The colors are a lot more vibrant than the original and I almost did not recognize the original work. Most of his art is so exact and precise to stay true to the beauty of the original artist’s work, but this one had so much more flavor and technique in it. I wonder what his purpose was in adding color, and flowers and more detail to trivial things like the wallpaper, bed, the maid and more. Overall, I find his art empowering in a way, not only for incorporating himself, but how smoothly he stitches his images into the original piece and adds age to the piece in order to coexist with the original work.
Untitled, would have been an eerie experience. Most, if not all, of his work is set in dark or poorly lit rooms for effect and he wants the installations to be seen from all angles. He incorporates as many senses as possible in order for the viewer to have a wide range of emotions towards the piece, with a twisted sense of humor. A lot of Oursler’s art seems to scare people, from talking puppets, to weird, creepy noises for suspended globes with eyes. This installation may have made me uncomfortable or creeped out, but if I had seen it today, I think it would have reflected on current problems with our own planet with our obsession with the media (specifically social media), and how badly we are killing our planet with global warming.
These digital media artists both started when this realm of art was still in its infancy. The 80’s to the 90’s, and even early 2000’s, were a time of discovery with the computer and you could make it your own. Now, knowing photoshop and incorporating multiple technologies for one product is something anyone can learn and do. Their mediums and how they create their art is vastly different, from physically being in their art, to working with at least five various technologies for one installation, but the way they care about their art are very similar.
It’s amazing to see how history repeats itself and some things never change, but should change. For example, social issues with race and society’s obsession with technology. Both Yasumasa Morimura and Tony Oursler are outside of the box thinkers who make social comments on their art, but they also have their own individual reasons for their work. One is digital and physical additions to existing art, while another is crazy and wild additions to simple objects to create a deeper meaning with various intents. Even know they have both changed and upgraded what they work on today, their impact in the art industry with their original works would be just as powerful if they made them now. Both of these artists are very fascinating and I hope to follow more of their work and see how many other projects they have created.
Bibliography:
Hunter, Sam, John Jacobus, and Daniel Wheeler. Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. 3rd ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2004.
“Tony Oursler.” 76 works, Bio & Shows on Artsy. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.artsy.net/artist/tony-oursler
"Yasumasa Morimura." 66 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy. Accessed May 8, 2017. https://www.artsy.net/artist/yasumasa-morimura.
