Tony Oursler: Imponderable

June 18, 2016–April 16, 2017

Posted on April 28, 2016

Yoshiko and Akio Morita Gallery and Contemporary Galleries, second floor

Beginning in June 2016, The Museum of Modern Art is reinstalling its second-floor contemporary galleries with three large-scale, single-work installations by contemporary artists Teiji Furuhashi, Nan Goldin, and Tony Oursler. Presented in distinct galleries, the featured works on view are Furuhashi’s Lovers (1994), Goldin’s The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1979-2004), and Oursler’s Imponderable (2015–16). Immersive in their construction and generous in size, the three large-scale galleries provide MoMA’s visitors with a unique opportunity to have deep encounters with these monumental works.

Tony Oursler’s Imponderable offers an alternative depiction of modernism that reveals the intersection of technological advancements and occult phenomena over the last two centuries. Presented in a “5-D” cinematic environment utilizing a contemporary form of Pepper’s ghost—a 19th-century phantasmagoric device—and a range of sensory effects, Imponderable is an immersive feature-length film inspired by Oursler’s own archive of ephemera relating to stage magic, spirit photography, pseudoscience, telekinesis, and other manifestations of the paranormal. Drawing on these objects, Imponderable weaves together a social, spiritual, and empirical history of the virtual image that overlaps with the artist’s own family history. The cast of characters, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, Mina “Margery” Crandon, and members of Oursler’s family, is portrayed by an eclectic ensemble of artists, musicians, and performers, including Kim Gordon, Jim Fletcher, Keith Sanborn, and Constance DeJong. Bringing together Oursler’s ongoing interest in mysticism, psychedelia, popular culture, and media history, the work uses macabre humor and theatrical surrealism to reflect on the irrational relationship between belief systems and the authenticity of images. Imponderable is presented in conjunction with selections from Oursler’s archive relating to the film. The exhibition is organized by Stuart Comer, Chief Curator, and Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Assistant Curator, Department of Media and Performance Art, MoMA. 

This exhibition coincides with Tony Oursler: The Imponderable Archive, on view at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 25–October 30, 2016.

Imponderable was originally commissioned and produced by the LUMA Foundation for the Parc des Ateliers, Arles, France, and LUMA Westbau, Zurich, Switzerland, 2015.

Allianz is a partner of contemporary art at MoMA.

Generous funding for Tony Oursler: Imponderable is provided by The Jill and Peter Kraus Endowed Fund for Contemporary Exhibitions.