untitled currency by tony oursler at art unlimited, art basel 2008

image © designboom

the athens-based, bernier / eliades gallery presented video artist tony oursler's room-size installation
'untitled currency', at 'art unlimited' part of art basel 2008. the piece is a very large projection ...


image © designboom


image © designboom



image © designboom

... that is essentially a talking one hundred dollar bill. typical of oursler's approach, it is really only benjamin franklin's
mouth that is animated, he also sticks out his tongue.



image © designboom

the other elements of the art piece suggest alternative uses for cash: there's a video of a hand making origami
from a one-dollar bill.



image © designboom

a good deal more humorous was a two-part sculpture of a rolled up washington and a mound of blow,
accompanied by an audio of someone sniffing.


image © designboom

'dollar bills were pasted willy-nilly to the walls...' the art basel newspaper reported german customs officers at the
border with switzerland discovered more than 1,000 dollar bills stuffed in oursler's bag. the event's daily said the
officers counted every note to make sure it did not exceed germany's legal export limit of 10,000 USD. it was
impossible not to notice that a handful of works in art basel handled currency - and oursler's 'untitled currency',
which was created for the occasion, has put it on reserve from the bernier / eliades gallery in athens, greece
by a collector - for 400,000 USD.

tony oursler's website: http://tonyoursler.com
bernier / eliades gallery website: http://www.bernier-eliades.gr

'art unlimited' is a parallel exhibition at art basel and features unconventional works by 70 artists.

art basel is the world's largest international contemporary art fair. in the four-day show, 300 of the world's leading
galleries are presenting the work of ca. international 2,000 artists.
http://www.artbasel.com