Tony Oursler
Eye in the Sky features a fibreglass sphere onto which is projected a single eye watching television. Although the rest of the body is not visible, we can hear the sounds of compulsive channel surfing. Without the emotive clues of facial expressions or gestures, we focus on the eye as an orifice, twitching as it gulps weather forecasts, commercials, sitcoms and game shows.
For Oursler, the fragmentary nature of the piece the disembodied eye, the reflected television screen and the rapidly changing channels parallels features of mental illnesses that signal the disintegration of the personality and the inability of the individual to identify with and function in the real world.
Oursler breaks down the traditional boundaries between media by creating a freestanding video sculpture.
Eye in the Sky, 1996
