"Emergence", 2003

“Emergence” depicts two women sitting on opposites sides of a white box with a cross on the front. The camera is stationary and the image is cropped so that the scene is symmetrical and centered, with the box in the middle and a woman on the left and right side. Water slowly spills over the edge of the box and a nude, male figure slowly rises from the box. He rises as if being pulled straight upward. The figure is covered in white makeup and has long hair. As the figure emerges the women turn their attention to him and seem as though they are surprised. Water is pouring off of his pale body and as he rises the women approach him as if to help. After he has risen fully, he slowly goes limp as the women help his lifeless body to the floor. They set him down with a look of awe and concern. The whole event takes place very slowly and frame by frame.

Bill Viola takes the role of director and producer in this piece. He controls every aspect of the video down to the subtle color changes in the backdrop. " You have to be so alert and aware, like an antenna or an open wound." Bill Viola on the production of Emergence.This video has deep spiritual meaning. Bill Viola is very interested in renaissance ideas about spirituality and religion. One could interpret “Emergence” as the second coming of Christ because of the details in the event such as the cross on the box and the white and holy use of color that often relates to purity. He talks about letting the eye see and take in an image for what it is and leaving the eye open instead of letting judgments and interpretations get in the way. This idea ties to perceiving spiritual events and experiencing things from the other realm. Many of the themes in religious renaissance paintings influence much of Bill Violas work. He draws from their close connection between artwork and the spiritual experience. This can be seen in the way “Nantes Triptych” is displayed. The three-panel style was used in countless churches to display their depictions of biblical stories.

All of these themes in Bill Viola’s work are consistent throughout and the only variable is the way in which he presents them. He used to leave more responsibility to the viewer to perceive the emotions and human experience in the documented events he let play out. We now see a more controlled aspect to his work where instead of filming real events, he sets up a stage with props and actors so that he becomes the director and master of the events he captures.

bibliography: Bill Viola, The Eye of the Heart, DVD

"Heaven and Earth", 1992

In Bill Viola’s piece titled “Heaven and Earth” he again uses the video of his mothers death and a video of a child after birth, the same footage used in “Nantes Triptych”. He presents the same footage but completely changes the way it is perceived. The way in which this work is displayed plays a key role in the work as a whole. He suspends a monitor from a pillar attached to the ceiling. Another monitor is positioned facing up on a column attached to the floor. The two monitors face each other and are placed close enough to reflect their videos onto each other. His mother is mostly still and blank with her eyes half open in a lifeless gaze. The child is looking curiously into the new world in which it just entered.

These works are viewed without any other light source; the video is the only source of light thereby focusing the attention on it instead of the environment surrounding it. The image of his dying mother is reflected onto the image of a child who was just born. The focus of the piece is to show someone who is coming into the world reflected into someone leaving the world. Once again this piece deals the connection between all aspects of the world simultaneously.

Bill Viola emerged as a video artist along with many others but his body of work differs from all the others. He has worked in the medium for 30 years and he has been privileged with the most current technology because of his status. His recent works take more of a professional approach to film. They feature actors playing out emotional events whereas his earlier work let the viewer find emotion in the real and documented events that he captured. He uses a more controlled form of production involving costumes and sets and teams of people assisting an event to help it play out in a way that best expresses the ideas he’s trying to communicate.

bibliography: Bill Viola, Puhringer pg. 18. Bill Viola, The Eye of the Heart, DVD.

Bill Viola: video artist. "Nantes Triptych", 1992

Bill Viola has secured a position as one of the most influential and important figures in contemporary art. He works as a video artist and has thoroughly explored the field, having started his career around the time that video was first emerging into the mainstream, and he has pioneered video art. He utilizes the space in which his videos are displayed and presents them as installations. He deals with a range of themes revolving around the human experience. He explores life, death, love and emotion in a range of filming techniques that utilize some of the most recent technology. His earlier techniques were often basic; using a handheld camera, in the style of a documentary he captured intimate moments like the birth of a child and the death of his mother.

In Nantes Triptych, Bill Viola displays three different videos in an installation that focuses on life and death. The first video is of his friend giving birth. It’s an intimate look into the beauty of birth and life. A stationary camera is centered on the subject and throughout the course of her labor she is exposed entirely. Also documented in the video is the baby after the birth. He juxtaposes this with a video dealing with death. He filmed his mother on her death bead and in her final moments of life. She was stricken with a terminal disease and eventually withered away. In a documentary titled “The Eye of the Heart”, Bill Viola talks about his mother’s death and his decision to film this deep and intimate experience. He says that filming his mother in the process of dying was emotionally the hardest experience he’s had to deal with. His mother’s illness sent him into grief for 5 months in which he refused to deal with any other work. The third video in the installation is placed in between the birth and the death. This video depicts a naked man weightlessly floating underwater. This video has a dark and empty use of color."These are the great universal experiences, they happen to be the most private and personal experiences and the camera is the embodiment of the invasion of privacy which is where the tension comes in.", Bill Viola on Nantes Triptych.

The title “Nantes Triptych” refers to the style in which he displays the work. The triptych was used in many renaissance works and it is three images side by side, the center being the focus. These three videos together make a piece about three contrasting aspects of life. Entering the world, leaving the world and being alive are all explored. The filming style he uses brings us up close and intimate with the subjects and what they are experiencing. Bill Viola deals with the connection between all aspects of the world and this can be seen as a theme in most of his videos. He uses asymmetrical aesthetics in his juxtaposition of his mother’s death with the video of a child being born, both images act as reciprocal metaphors.

bibliography: Bill Viola, The Eye of The Heart, DVD.