© Tony Oursler / BONO. Photo: © Ivar Kvaal
Klang
- Date 2013
- Unveiled 2013
- Material Sound and video installation
- Details Site Spesific
- Dimensions 210 x 456 x 56-58 cm
«I always say you have to look for things in places you wouldn’t expect to find them.»
Photo: © Ivar Kvaal
Tony Oursler
(b. New York, United States, 1957)
Tony Oursler is particularly known for combining light, sound and movement in his art. He studied at CalArts, alongside among others Mike Kelley and John Baldessari, with Laurie Andersson among the teachers. During the 1990's, Oursler became known for his Talking Lights, and The Influence Machine (2000), using light projections on trees, smoke and buildings in New York City's Madison Park and London's Soho Square. His works have been shown at, among many institutions, The Kitchen, New York, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Documenta (1987, 1992, 1997), Kassel, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris and Tate Modern, London.
American artist Tony Oursler has created three site-specific works for Ekebergparken. They each comment on the way we relate to technology and language, with a backdrop of the history of communication, all in close relation to the scenery. The video grotto Klang emerges from a wall along one of the main paths in the park. The wall resembles the network of walls in the area; both ruins from past agricultural activity, and the walls put up by the occupying Nazi forces during the second world war. The constantly shifting images glowing on the many screens, give insight into human communication and symbolism.
Klang is the largest of the three site-specific works Oursler created for the Ekeberg Sculpture Park. It is a constructed cave with video screens behind a sheet of reinforced iron with perforations and carvings. The work displays a complex tableau of moving images, videos, and sounds. The motifs of runes, inscriptions, hieroglyphs, formulas, emojis, and symbols are on a continuous loop from early morning to late evening every day. The sounds are monotonous and based on a dialogue that is difficult to put into context. Klang is inspired by the history of Nordic telecommunication and the cultural heritage of the Ekeberg area. The artwork explodes from the ground up to the stars in an imagined arc that connects it with the other works Oursler has made for the park: Cognitive & Dissonance and Spectral Power. Just like the other site-specific works, Klang is about how humans have communicated through time. The frenetic picture surface seems both eternal and everchanging, as though everything the audience is sensing is trying to communicate at the same time, resulting in confusion and noise. It is a depiction of the noise from all the information surrounding us—a distracting, but fascinating experience.
Guided tours
Experience Klang and many of the other artworks in the collection with our art mediators. We offer guided tours for private groups all year round.