Artist Research: Bill Viola

“The first light a human being sees” Bill Viola (Kidel 1996)

 

“The first light a human being sees” Bill Viola (Kidel 1996)

Bill Viola has explored video art since it emerged in the 1970’s, even today he is considered a leading artist in the field. Other noted areas of interest include experimentation with audio, spiritual beliefs, religious artifact’s, and personal experiences.

He uses Single Channel pieces as well as large scale sound and image installation such as Going Forth By Day (2002) a darkened exhibition space filled by three huge projectors for the viewers to immerse themselves in at their own pleasure.

He draws inspiration from well known traditional paintings, such as the world renowned Fresco paintings of the Italian Renascence, digitally bringing them to life with high end technology.

He uses personal experiences to fuel his work, however is recognised for the universal resonance. For example representing the feeling of drowning which so many (Viola age 6 included) can relate to. Many viewers relate through either first hand experience of drowning, or in witnessing a character drowning in a film/play etc.

The Raft (2004)

 

An example of this is Viola’s video installation The Raft (2004), bottom right. Is one of many works inspired by Viola’s personal experience of drowning, combined with Theodore Gericault’s large scale painting bottom left of The Raft of Medusa (1818-19).

It appears that Viola is more interested in incorporating the sensations that the figures may have experienced in Gericault’s painting, than the technique and almost monochromatic aged sepia tones.

By comparison Viola’s work is devoid of stylised costume or thought of colour theory, something that should not be limited to mediums outside of digital video. Certainly more thought could have been inputed into Viola’s recreation of such a masterpiece.

Viola & Childhood Memories

Even as a child viola was into various artistic mediums such as drawing comic book stories and playing the keyboard, he found an artistic world that would allow him to feel control and create whatever he wanted in it.

As a child he would listen to the environment around him, at night observing the sounds of his parents in the bathroom; the toilet flush, the tap running in the sink. Before building gradually quietness until a sudden ‘stillness’.

In line with Viola’s true artistic nature, he recreated this in his work. The memory of his child self late at night, when his family had gone to bed “staring up to the ceiling and watching…retinal grain or noise…swirling, salt and pepper type display”.

As a child he would imagine that he was looking out to another space, that was only seen when dark. Perhaps a parallel universe, a magical world or outer-space, Viola does not specify but I assume that this was a sense of escapism for him as a child, which is why this memory is so predominant in his mind.

An alternative theory is that it may just be the act of repetition that has placed this memory so firmly in his mind. However I believe that it is the latter, due to his affection for his past, and the consistent use of memory as inspiration.

Memoria (2000)

Performed by John Malpede

Memoria 2000 is the first of many works (such Bodies of light (2006) to be influenced by the aesthetic memory of the above retinal grain, or noise from his childhood memory.

Digitally recorded on a low-grade surveillance camera, the image of the male performers face is projected onto silk cloth, which combined recreate this swirling dark nothingness that he recalled. The time based media runs on loop, projected (61.0 x 76.2 cm) with no sound.

Inspired by  the Veil of Veronica and Shroud of Turin, Viola decided that the man should express a range of emotional states through his facial expressions whilst maintaining the degraded look.

 

The Veil of Veronica and Shroud of Turin are religious artifacts, related to Christianity. Supposedly the Veil/shroud show Jesus Christ’s face and are held with high prestige as a relic of Rome and St. Peter’s Basilica since the Middle Ages.

Viola expresses religious and spiritual beliefs in the underpinning of many of his works, from the more traditional Christianity and Catholicism, to the more spiritual Buddhism. He does hold dominance in any one influence, being world travelled and open minded to all beliefs.

Relating back to his mentioned childhood memory; the face seems to be held on the verge of disintegration or materialization, through its degraded recording quality. Actualising the metaphorical ‘signal from another place’, with the signal sometimes breaking up; the face dissolves into the ‘salt and pepper’ of recorded noise.

Education

Viola’s parents had initially allowed him to attend art school providing he studied advertising; believing it to be the only way an artist can make money. However Viola struggled from the beginning, flunking most of his university level classes, and for 1 and a half years failing ‘miserably.

Then his advertising teacher asked him to meet the head of the newly established experimental studio department, Professor Jack Nelson.

Nelson played a huge role in Viola’s academic life, allowing Viola an area to study that made him feel comfortable. When they met immediately Nelson stood out to him, shouting “i’m projecting vegetation on the moon!”.

This peaked Violas interest, at which he entered Nelsons class and saw a sped up time lapse of grass blowing in the wind, digitally projected on a giant paper-mache moon hung from the classroom ceiling.

The projection was narrowed down into a circle shape created by a telescope shape, made from cardboard toilet role tubes,  taped on to the front of an 8mm movie projector.

The inventiveness, freedom of creative expression and consideration of the latest technology, convinced Viola to change his area of study. Additionally he went onto study mysticism, literature, electrical engineering and electronic music.

David Tudor & Rainforest Four

Viola has alway understood the possibilities that using sound can create, the avant guard composer and musician David Tudor was a class associate of the experimental composer John Cage, and a mentor of Viola’s from an early age. I will dedicate an area to John Cage in a separate area of this blog, as being associated with Cage should not be overlooked, Cage being a pioneer of experimental music, and the inventor of Found Sound and such like.

Viola frequently collaborated with Tudor, performing in his Electro acoustic installations such as Rainforest Four which surrounded and engulfed the listener. By channelling electronic output through an object rather than through the usual device, such as a speaker, Tudor created a unity between music and sculpture in groundbreaking and unexpected new ways.

Numerous unique and unlikely objects were suspended from the ceiling at approximate ear level, allowing the space to be filled with gentle sounds generated by the vibration of the hanging objects.

Working with Tudor influenced Viola to make sound an essential element to many of his works.

The Vietnam Era

At this time, Viola believed that Political Social Activision and creative experimentation were part of the same process, studying in America at the time of Vietnam War (1955 – 1975).

Viola explains that living in the ‘Vietnam era’, political protests were a part of daily life. He was part of a student body that set up their own university campus television channel, in order to broadcast what they wanted to say and show. The idea of creating a way to communicate with no interference from outside sources, naturally appealed to Viola.

The thing that empowered the video movement at the time, was that everyday people could create ‘television’ in their own image. Instead of the image of a giant corporation that is “controlling us, and telling us what to think, and what to buy” Viola (in Kidel, 1996).

The technological revolution of the time became a form of revolt, to allow people to voice their opinions politically, socially and artistically. Viola has since been focussed with the intention of using his art to “change someones life…and change the world” Viola (in Kidel, 1996).

Room for St. John of the Cross (1983)

A darkened space, with one large projector across the back wall, and a room like small box in front, lit by candle light in front. Both rectangle shape, one vertical and the other horizontal. This mirroring in space creates a connective relationship in the viewers mind.

Silent Life (1979)

“To see the advent of seeing…the advent of knowing” Viola (Kidel 1996)

Silent Life (1979) had the feel of an amateur documentary, with close up recordings of newborn babies in a maternity ward. In particular the facial expressions whilst looking and breathing for the first time. With particular interest in the first time an eye opens and the light of the outside world comes in.

Viola’s background in perceptual studies and psychology came into play here, he believed that a newborn baby doesn’t know how to digest the visual information that it receive when first born, how to read light and turn it into an image, until it is learned.. He was interested in filming so close to the babies pupil that he would gain the sense of entering the babies mind, seeing how the newborn sees. Something that the artist revisited with animals, filming extreme close ups of the large black and yellow eyes of Owls. The idea is to leave your own experiences behind, to truly emphasise with the animal or child.

The captured imagery in Silent Life shows the true vulnerability of the newborn babies, Viola focused mainly on one in particular.

Through the observation of the babies facial expressions he felt that he re-experienced the advent of seeing and of knowing, but not understanding for the first time all over again.

When watching this piece, it reminded me of just how similar newborn babies are across all species, it was a humbling experience as a human. With man kind at the top of the food chain, it is easy to forget that we start just as vulnerable, dependant and helpless.

Amusingly the newborn mentioned looked confused; like a fish with its mouth open, unaware of what to do; just existing, just being. Waiting for something to react to, but unaware of what that reaction will be.

The documentary style of this work, suited his technical choice to film the ‘privaliged’ action handheld, with natural lighting with the aesthetics of a ‘home movie’. Opposed to with studio lighting, tripods and special effects that are contradictory in style to the realness and authenticity that I feel he wanted to communicate to the viewer, not a ‘staged’ and rehearsed performance like some of his later works.

A video link that gives a brief overlook of his work:

Bill Viola’s life in 60 seconds..

In Viola’s later works, he moved away from filming more ‘privalidged’ life events, such as birth and death, to staged events and theatre.

This had mixed responses, but it allowed him to create a larger repertoire without relying on life changing/ notable life events to create work.

Some felt he lost his authenticity, with cheap hollywood thrills. Overly lit and overly staged portraiture that is reminiscent of a low budget photographer.

Personally it is a breath of fresh air to me, to see adept actors encompassing great levels of depth within their body language and facial expressions. The digital slow motion ‘stills’ that come to life are captivating and fascinating to observe. Of course I cannot deny the feeling of exclusivity and rewarding nature of seeing a birth or the trust, feeling that I the viewer am being confined in, and authenticity of witnessing Viola’s mother on the brink of death. I feel privileged with what he allows me to see, and gain trust in him as a politically driven artist.

Post References:

Art Gallery of New South Wales (2003) Memoria. Available at: http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/254.2011.a-b/ (Accessed: 1 April 2016).

Getty Museum and Kidel, M. (2012) Bill Viola at work: Making the passions videos. Available at: https://youtu.be/GQuSYsFMMt4 .

Jelle De Ridder (2008) Bill Viola’s life in 60 seconds. Available at: https://youtu.be/Lf6sLevNBD8 .

Kidel, M. and BBC (1996) Bill Viola The Eye of The Heart.

Records, M. (no date) David Tudor – Rainforest. Available at: http://www.moderecords.com/catalog/064tudor.html (Accessed: 1 April 2016).

Smith, H. (2012) Bill Viola’s The Raft as a Notion of Shared Comfort and Consolation. Available at: http://arttattler.com/commentarybillviolatheraft.html (Accessed: 1 April 2016).

WorldNetDaily (2009) The shroud of Turin. Available at: http://www.bibleprobe.com/shroud.htm (Accessed: 1 April 2016).