Bill Viola
(United States of America 1951– )
- Title
- Observance
- Year
- 2002
- Media categories
- Time-based media, Video, DVD
- Materials used
- HD video, colour, silent, 10:14 min; plasma screen
- Edition
- 3/5
- Dimensions
-
120.7 x 72.4 x 10.2cm
- Signature & date
- Signed Certificate of authenticity, black felt tip pen "Bill Viola".
- Credit
- John Kaldor Family Collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program - Accession number
- 255.2011
- Copyright
- © Bill Viola
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Performers: Alan Abelew, Sheryl Arenson, Frank Bruynbroek, Carol Cetrone, Cathy Chang, Ernie Charles, Alan Clark, JD Cullum, Michael Irby, Tanya Little, Susan Matus, Kate Noonan, Paul O’Connor, Valerie Spencer, Louis Stark, Richard Stobie, Michael Eric Strickland, Ellis Williams
Bill Viola began experimenting with the possibilities of video as an art form early in the 1970s. He explores and manipulates the specific characteristics of his medium, such as light and linear time, by speeding up, slowing down and reversing his footage. He uses different cameras to create particular atmospheres, ranging from black-and-white surveillance footage to high-end video transferred from 35mm film.
Viola has long been interested in eastern religions and more recently in Christian iconography, in particular images that evoke our ephemeral existence on earth. ‘Observance’ is from ‘The passions’ series. In this work figures move out of the dark towards the portal of the screen, gazing beyond the frame into the viewer’s space as if into a tomb and then with a melancholy air they move away. ‘Six heads’ explores a range of human passions while in ‘Bodies of light' a male and a female stand in water while a globe of light moves up and down their bodies, eventually dissolving their forms.
- Bibliography (5)
-
Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Editor), John Kaldor Family Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2011, 264-65 (colour illus.).
Kira Perov (Author), Bill Viola: visioni interiori, 2008.
Bill Viola (United States of America, b.1951) (Author), Hatsu Yume: first dream, 2006, 142-145 (illus.).
Chris Townsend (Editor), The Art of Bill Viola, 2004.
John Walsh (Author), Bill Viola: The Passions, 2003, 124 (illus.), 276.
- Exhibition history (1)
-
Bill Viola: The Passions, J. Paul Getty Museum, 24 Jan 2003–27 Apr 2003.
