Nick Kaye: Oursler frequently emphasizes the dummies’ lack of mobility, animating their frustration: trapping them under furniture; pinning them to the floor. Where for
Crying Doll, as well as
Hysterical (1993),
Full Moon (1993) and
MMPI Test Doll (1992), the figure is suspended on a wooden or metal pole, for
Getaway #2, the dummy lies on the floor, its head (and projection) seemingly stuck beneath the corner of a mattress.
MMPI (Red) (1997) is similarly immobilized beneath an upturned chair, while the head of Pinned (1995) is painfully fixed to the floor under the foot of a chair leg. In their address to the onlooker, the dummies may explicitly reflect upon their dilemma. Comprised of a head animated by a looped projection onto a pillow, with a prone body formed from loosely stuffed jacket and pyjama trousers tied at each end, Deborah Rothschild, in her introduction to Oursler’s mid-career survey exhibition, Introjection,12 quotes the critic Peter Schejeldahl’s response to Getaway #2, which
simmers with disconsolate fury at the injury of its helpless condition and the insult of being trapped in public view. Occasionally its restless eyes fix the visitor and it speaks, “Hey, you. Get out here. What are you looking at?” After pausing for mournful reflection, it tries again. “I’ll kick your ass,” it hazards with measured venom but not much conviction. (Schejeldahl in Rothschild 1999)
References
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