These early examples of Oursler’s ingenious video theater are bizarre tales of good and evil. Crudely executed, they are as funny as they are chilling. Life is a series of spontaneous, dryly humorous episodes about the absurdity and grotesqueness of everyday life. Oursler writes: “When I look around I see that life is pregnant with pleasures and dangers. I get confused. We come down the chute and start out O.K. Then everything is go go go until you… you know what happens.” Diamond (Head) is a tale of lust and greed, starring a triangular-shaped cardboard protagonist who marries and has a “Good Son” — a small, foetus-shaped balloon. Good Things and Bad Things, which introduces Oursler’s recurring theme of the interdependence of good and evil, culminates in a wild vignette in which the artist plays the role of a young woman in a violent world turned sideways.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
B1000125
Audience classification
unclassified
Colour
Colour
Object Types
Artwork
Materials
Single channel moving image
Holdings
Digital Betacam [PAL]; Master
Digital Betacam [PAL]; Sub-master
VHS [PAL]; Reference - timecoded
MOV file ProRes4444; Digital Preservation Master - overscan
MPEG-4 Digital File; ACMI Digital Access Copy - overscan