More About the Works on View
Studio is a mixed-media installation that playfully reinterprets Courbet's The Artist's Studio, bringing in "studio visitors"—who Courbet calls "shareholders," in his notes on his own work—who make appearances on a large video screen. Visitors include family members, friends, and colleagues, such as the artist's infant son, filmmaker Robert Altman, artists John Baldessari and Constance de Jong, and musicians David Bowie and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. All share stories or comments, or act out roles. Also included in Oursler's Studio are "inspirational objects," such as a Rem Koolhaas architectural model and works by Kaare Rafoss, a friend and former teacher, and Jacqueline Humphries, the artist's wife.

Oursler is represented in Studio by a laughing, glowing blob onto which a video of multiple eyes is projected. This differs from Courbet, who portrays himself facing away from the viewer. As Oursler explains, "Courbet chose to depict himself at work, turned away from the viewer, looking into the picture space. I want to be in the work, the picture space, looking out at the viewer/participant."

For Climaxed, the artist creates an environment that seeks to uncover and attenuate forever what happens—or how it feels—if an explosion is frozen at its most exciting moment, just as it begins. "By suspending what should happen in a split second, Oursler produces a space in which diametric opposites coexist," according to Gary Tinterow. "In the same way we marvel at cinematic special effects that result from violent, fictional acts, the viewer is likely to find him- or herself simultaneously rapt and revolted, and playing the symbolic role of both voyeur and victim."

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