Prospect.1; KK Projects; Tony Oursler

Remember Prospect.1 (2008), the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the U.S., previously blogged here?

I just learned my favorite project at KK Projects was by Tony Oursler. (I don't recall any signage or mention in the printed materials . . . . Sincere apologies for my failures and ignorance, both being infinite.)

See KK Projects for their visuals (click on biennial, then on tony oursler; some of the stills are by my own Ben!); and my vidi of the piece, here.

This all takes place on a block of very small, clapboard houses damaged by the flooding following Katrina. But there's a giant house on the corner, with a paucity of windows facing the block of small houses; and those windows there are, are shuttered, boarded up, or even barred.

Many houses in N.O. still have not been repaired and remain boarded up, so you almost might not particularly notice this house; except that faint sounds and ethereal music emanate from it. You follow the audio, discover that a few small, round holes have been drilled into the ground floor walls, and peer inside. You see video -- I wish I'd watched it through, but I didn't; but I think it had to do with New Orleans denizens, and music -- projected onto the interior rooms of this monolithic, foreboding house -- against a backdrop of shelves, a chair, and various implements.

Eyes, belly-buttons, voices, instruments, apertures.