Tony Oursler

“GHOSTPHONE“, 2003
Audio via Bluetooth, 9:48 min.

Hello, hello … Rain, pain … Bad, bad, mad … a distorted, indistinct voice repeats words that initially appear to be directed at someone who has been called. But then they get lost in uncertainty. The work develops in a lyrical way, lines of poems alternating with playful chains of words and free associ- ations. Tony Oursler’s work Ghostphone was prompted by reports about the telephone calls of victims of September 11, 2001. The work, made in 2003, consists of a soundtrack spoken by Oursler himself and then distorted using various effects. In the exhibition The World in Your Hand, visitors can receive an audio file via bluetooth. The eerie, invisible and strange that has accompanied telecommunications from its beginnings and which has been introduced into the narrative of countless films by a call, is translated by Ghostphone into a immediate encounter on the device.