Bill Viola

Bill Viola was mentioned by Cyan in my Crit. I've looked at his work before and im sure we saw one of his video pieces (on youtube) in Su Ballard's class last year BUT i realised that there are no image of his up here. So here we go:



- Ocean without a Shore - 2007
This is a video installation of his created in 2007. This qoute is sited as partial inspiration on his website:
‘Ocean Without a Shore’ is about the presence of the dead in our lives. The three stone altars in the church of San Gallo become portals for the passage of the dead to and from our world. Presented as a series of encounters at the intersection between life and death, the video sequence documents a succession of individuals slowly approaching out of darkness and moving into the light. Each person must then breakthrough an invisible threshold of water and light in order to pass into the physical world. Once incarnate however, all beings realize that their presence is finite and so they must eventually turn away from material existence to return from where they came. The cycle repeats without end.


- Dissolution - 2005
Color video diptych on plasma displays mounted vertically on wall


This image i couldnt find details for and the site i pulled it down from was in Japanese. hmm.


The Crossing-1996 Video/Sound installation.

There is something so beautiful and yet so graphic and disturbing about Viola's large scale video installations and associated pieces. His use of light and motion are incredibly powerful and are on an epic scale. I am drawn to these images of his but i am sure that the actual video works would be much more impressive than these images./ I wish i could get anywhere near his beautiful and powerful use of lighitng and amazing (yet simple) use of effects - water, fire etc.