1. BILL VIOLA
“Art is, for me, the
process of trying to
wake up the soul.
Because we live in an
industrialized, fast-
paced world that
prefers that the soul
remain asleep.”
2. Bill Viola is 63 years old and has
been fascinated in art since he can
remember. He is a very spiritual
person and feels the world in his
mind is much more real than the
world we’re living in.
He is a new generation artist who
depends on new media technology
to express himself such as by using
music, sound and electronics. His
works focus on the ideas of
everyone's human experiences
such as birth, death and emotions.
“Tape I” (1972)
“For 40 years he has created videotapes,
architectural video installations, sound
environments, electronic music performances,
flat panel video pieces, and works for television
broadcast”
(http://www.billviola.com/biograph.htm)
3. He has always been very interested
in water, he feels the circuits in the
camera and the electricity is much
like the currents that flow through
water. That’s why he enjoys mixing
the two.
When video artist Bill Viola was 6
years old he fell into a lake, all the
way to the bottom, to a place
which seemed like paradise.
"There's more than just the surface
of life." Viola explains. "The real
things are under the surface".
“Nantes Triptych”
(1992)
“water is everything to me, it’s what I do”
5. THE DREAMERS
“The installation is a continuation of Viola’s
exploration into water and life’s connection to it. The
piece consists of seven individual screens, which
display people, apparently sleeping, underwater. The
people are perfectly still apart from occasional slow
movements and bubbles, caused by their breath
floating to the surface. In the darkened space, the
sounds of the water and the images of the people
envelope the viewer, making them feel a part of the
work, as if they were themselves submerged under
the water”.
This is a photo from one of his earliest works, which he calls one of his most successful. It’s where he started playing with cameras and learning different effects they can do. At the end of this piece he put his finger on the tape to force it to stop which gave is a disorted effect. He believes cameras are soul keepers cause you’ll be able to play it back for hundreds of years after.
I decided to look into some of his works featuring water to influence my final product
