Last week I went to an exhibition in London by the artist Bill Viola called: “LOVE/DEATH: The Tristan Project”, which was fantastic.
I had not heard of the artist before, but apparently he is pretty famous in the video art world. His exhibition is a collection of videos, most around ten minutes in length, relating to water, fire and people. They included a figure standing in front a wall of fire, and then falling into a pool of water, projected onto a 10foot high screen in a pitch black room, with roaring sound. Another one was people falling into water in slow motion, from brilliant disorientating angles.
It is one of the best exhibitions I have ever been to, really powerful, fantastically executed. I would highly recommend anyone who leaves near London getting along before it closes. He made the videos from the exhibition (along with other footage totalling four hours) to accompany a performance of Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, which must have been an amazing show.
It’s difficult to describe the power of them, although I managed to find a video on you tube from one of his older exhibitions that I have posted below, along with some pictures of the current exhibition above.
You Tube Video
More information
Details of the exhibition (Entry is free!)
Bill Viola is not only a fantastic videomaker, but also a brilliant Fine artist. I think it would be difficult to find a young contemporary artist who could match the beauty seen in this exhibition.
The videos are powerful but ethereal at the same time - the human figures often float and move elegantly, whether it be under water or through a heat haze. The pace of the films is also crucial to their effect; everything is revealed slowly. Viola takes his time to gently reveal what is truly happening, keeping the viewer hooked right up until the moment when all your expectations are blown away - e.g. in one particular video, ‘The Fall into Paradise’ you assume that you are viewing an intertwined couple from above - that is until they crash violently through the water towards the camera and you realise you have been tricked. Bill Viola’s manipulations are key to creating thoughtful artwork and trying to stimulate the audience into questioning what they see on film. Fine artists nowadays often rely on shock tactics to trigger a reaction from the viewer - this shock is often short lived and will not help their work in the long run. Instead, they should definitely examine how Viola manages to capture the audience’s attention, as he uses his sophisticated videos to hypnotise whoever sees them.