Dolls in the between the media and the reality

Sharp contrasts and themes from the shady side of life are an inherent part of the Love Me or Leave Me exhibition featuring the works the audience loves or hates most. Therefore, the visitors are not necessarily surprised when, after having entered the third floor, they are encircled by an alarming soundscape echoing with aggressive cries and desperate gasps for breath.

The sources of the sounds turn out to be Tony Oursler’s video projections Destroyed (1995) and Choking Doll (1995). It is easy to see why these dolls have not left anyone cold: the emotions triggered by the works have ranged from one extreme to the other, for and against.

An American, born in New York in 1957 and still working in his home city, Tony Oursler has critically assessed social phenomena in his art. The balance of power in families and human relationships, violence and domination come to mind when watching the Destroyed and Choking Doll from the Kiasma collection. Themes from the darker side of humanity. Oursler’s human figures are half-human, half-machine: the video projection revives the faces of the rag doll-like figures, otherwise the dolls resemble lifeless scarecrows. The technological details are not hidden but frankly visible, thus creating tension between the viewer and the doll. Viewers become omnipotent and simultaneously their role becomes more interactive. Although the violence in Oursler’s work is familiar from TV and films, the position of the viewer is more complex in Oursler’s motion picture.
I suggest that this is the starting point for Oursler’s critical and provocative approach. As if mere watching was prohibited and this is where the relationship of the media and reality becomes blurred.

The contrasts are violent and varied in these two works. Multi-coloured pieces of cloth with flower patterns are generally associated with home or folk art, dolls with childhood innocence, an armchair with unhurried relaxation. Oursler fails these expectations by introducing out-of-the-ordinary combinations. In his works, the materials and elements are assigned new meanings: a cosy piece of cloth is shown parallel to cold technology; a doll with an aggressive message is a travesty of the doll we know.

Classifying Oursler in the field of visual arts is not simple either. His name has appeared in connection with a continuum of film and video art, sculpture, music videos, performance art and theatre. Co-operation with performers and actors has linked him with the theatre. In Love Me or Leave Me exhibition the situations and feelings of the Destroyed and Choking Doll are interpreted by Oursler’s trusted actress, Tracy Leipold. The open presence of technology also makes the works more like performances.

Tony Oursler is called one of the most significant media artists of the 1990s. Both works in the Love Me or Leave Me exhibition date from the mid-1990s. At that time, Tony Oursler worked by listening to several radio and TV channels simultaneously, picked up occasional phrases from here and there and mingled them with his stream of consciousness. The everyday reality and the world of the media are seamlessly integrated into the works of art. Oursler testifies that the media dictates our feelings, occasionally even more effectively than our everyday experiences.

Choking Doll is an extremely physical work. I have a vivid memory of how I felt nasty in my stomach and throat when I first saw the work. The repulsion came as soon as I saw the work. But with Destroyed, given the echoing halls of Kiasma, you must prick up your ears to hear what a woman forced under an armchair actually says. The contradictions do not end here: the subordinated figure utters all but subdued comments; rather, it shouts obscenities and aggressive threats like: ”I’m gonna break your arm” or ”I’m gonna punch you in the face”. Who is dominating whom? Has the figure lying under the chair deserved this? Are Oursler’s living dolls ’freer’ or more alive than dolls in general? The viewer can no longer be certain and becomes vexed; there are neither instant answers nor remote controls to turn the sound down. There is only the cacophony of sounds and feelings, creating emptiness. Should one cry or laugh, love or leave? Was this what Oursler meant when he told that during the process of making these works, he was intrigued by the similarities between MPD (multiple personality disorder) and the media audience?

Eeva-Mari Haikala
artist, who works as guide in Kiasma