Bill Viola

I was first introduced to Bill Viola when I saw an exhibition of his work in London about two years ago which contained many of his video artwork being played around the gallery. One piece I vividly remember - a large video projected on the wall about a meter across which was a group of people all staring into the camera, slowly they all swapped around - the ones at the back moving forwards until they had travelled full circle - all staring, concentrating and looking confused into the camera. After a while we got the feeling that while we were viewing the people they were also viewing us, we became part of the art work... it was a weird feeling to get and made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Other amazing pieces I have seen are ones such as "The Crossing" which is a two sided huge screen, one side is a man projected with flames that grow and consume him, while at the same time on the opposit side of the screen there is the same person being drenched with water that eventually consumes him. All this is mixed with the sounds from each video... atmosphere at its best.


Bill Viola Website