BILL VIOLA: A Conceptual Framework Artist
BILL VIOLA
Conceptual framework Artist
Raised in Queens in New York He had an English mother and American father He studied at Syracuse university He has a fine arts degree He is a part of the rainforest project “the real is considered to be only what can be touches, named, observed and recorded. Viola’s installations aim to transcend the material world He has re-contextualised art making of the past through using new technology. His work has the same reaction from the audience but with new technology. He encapsulates you “as a technological artist of today”
Artwork
Uses influences of high culture of that time, and popular culture (simular to frank Gehry ) Use of new technologies No dialogue or narrative in his works so audience can reflect on their life experiences He uses costumes, props, lighting, actors diversity of means …show more content…
Lighting techniques and compost ion of past renaissance works. Viola attempts to use his artworks to stimulate a sense of empathy and thoughtfulness. Visual codes of water, light Intertextual he uses a diverse range of symbols and cultures and influences Subjective for the audience , contemplate and inner reflection for the audience to gain a deeper experience His works relate to extreme emotion All deal with the human experience of over whelming temperamental and leaves us transformed and changed Human condition He hopes audience will slow down and understand their day to day life through a new contemplate reflection. The diversity of technologies and fast paces of life Subject matter there isn’t enough time for people to experience genuine emotion Works are all stories behind people’s emotions (as we don’t know what their upset about , his works becomes a projection screen for ourselves When working with a group (actors), he has to speak to people individually about their own life experiences rather than directing them as a group Shot at 240 frames a second (high definition film) 10 more times more information than a normal recording to really see and slow down and contemplate the human condition Digital cutting edge technology used for editing (similar to Frank Gehry powerful impact on audience , one through video one through sculpture ) Process: 1.His work comes first from writing, as he gets his influences from texts. 2. Actors of a certain look and feel through auditions (without a script because there is no dialogue , so he gives them an exercise to do eg a poem )people who make their bodies apart of the work 3. Expanding vision in all its manifestations , becomes an event like a flower opening. Your mind allows you to catch up with the image and contemplate because of the extreme slow motion Finding where the nature images of landscapes and electronic images, where he went to nature to find these images (Canada and desert) Re-contextualises and appropriates artworks Video – part of daily life, using what is apart of popular culture and making high art
World
CONTEMPORARY WORLD 21st century society and its technology – fast pace of society, rapid moving and transforming contemporary world threatens to engulf humanity Relationship between society and world = crucially important Postmodern art refers to art of the present time that is experimental and challenged traditional ideas. Reacting againt society which is dominated by electronic media, video, photography and performance art. mass mediated and technological driven society Due to the fast pace of contemporary work people have a lack of ability and time to reflect and understand the true meaning of life.
Audience
Viola provokes an audience to contemplate and engage in self discovery Viola invites an audience to participate both spiritually and intellectually “he wants each image to be the first image to shine with the intensity of its own first-born being Subjective under their own life Viola intends that the images represented in “the passions” series become a projection of the audiences own experiences. The artist aims to create a meditative environment in which a spiritual relationship between the audience and the artwork can be established. Through his digital time based works, he intends to submerge the audience’s conscience in a deep meditative and observant state of mind, stimulating an ephemeral, sense of tranquillity and escapism. Sound and vision stimulate the audience
Influences Post modern world/contemporary dominated by electronic media, video, photography and performance art age of extreme scepticism Religious influences
Studied eastern religious texts – 13th century Persian poet and mystic Jalhudin Rumi and Zen Buddhism
Pre Renaissance/early Renaissance art (Christian religion) Renaissance painters or ‘old masters’ ‘young radicals’
Notion of a spiritual relationship btw the work and the viewer was further explored through Viola’s exploration of paintings by the old masters (1300s-1700s)
Spiritual overwhelming sense of some thing ‘greater than’ emotional impact
Viola quotes and re-interprets historical paintings through time-based digital works. The intense and varied expressions of these historical art works is translated through Viola’s subjects as they enact and perform “something untouchable and invisible” – interview with Betty Churcher, ABC Viola’s time in Florence was spent exploring the cathedrals and churches of the Renaissance, lingering with an audiotape recorder, making a series of acoustic records of much of the religious architecture of the city. Particularly influenced by the technical and aesthetic invention of the early Renaissance painters, who he defines as the “young radicals of their time” “it impressed me regardless of ones religious beliefs, the enormous resonant stone halls of the medieval cathedrals have an undeniable effect on the inner state of the viewer. And sound seemed to carry so much feeling of the ineffable” Led him to investigate the internal spaces of these churches as environments filled with images. Large scale and vast spaces filled with religious iconography are translated by the experiential and sensory impact they had on Viola. He states that these basilica’s (churches) consume and overpower the viewer into a state of awe and reflection and spiritual meditation. Technology and new era of art
Nam June Paik (Korean) – whose exploration of video and exacting specifications for installation and presentation made a great impression on Viola. Paik pioneered the use of monitors as elements in environmental artworks. Subverting the video image as it appeared on the monitor Paik recognised its dominant role in Western culture. Electronic music “the whole world of electronics, circuitry, and analogue-wave theory…which was a great basis for going into video” Minimalist legacy: film and video Richard Serra/Andy Warhol/Bruce Nauman use film as an artistic medium
Physical experiences
Nearly drowning at the age of 10 “the thing I remember is the imagery of this incredibly beautiful, serene blue-green world…it was peaceful and mysterious” Diverse experiences of other cultures “sense of place has been of primary importance in my work. I have travelled all over the world to gather images for my videotapes. I have found that the more intense my experience at a place making a tape, the more power the piece absorbs for itself” “my work is a perpetual evolution and development of a series of ideas that I had when I was younger”
Cycle of life – concerned with issues of birth, death and memory (birth, passing, rebirth) Water, tears and transcendence: Water and fire – both potent and perennial symbols Water metaphor for death and renewal
*THE MESSENGER 1998 – video + sound installation The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, October Commissioned for the monumental space of the Great West Door of the 12th century Durham Cathedral Normanisc spiritual house *(link with spiritual/renaissance influences) Video and sounds installation which follows the rise and fall of a floating male figure – surfacing and gasping for air and sinking back slowly in the dark water. Metaphor for emergence, renewal, rebirth, revelations, and the personal journey of individual existence. “it reminds you of where you came from. When you see the man emerge out of the water and take a breath, there is a birth every time he comes back into our world” - *THE PASSING 1991 A reflection of birth and death “these events focused my investigations and interest in a very real way…(my mothers) death gave me a deeper understanding of things I had been grappling with for most of my life” incorporating memory, reality, and fantasy, The Passing includes an image of Viola lying underwater, fully clothed, as though drowned. The Passing marked a turning point shifting his role from subject to viewer. Simplicity of black and white represents the inevitably of life which should be cherished and celebrated. *THE GREETING 1995 Inspired by the painting of the Visitation, 1528-30 by the Italian artists Pontormo, The G is a video image sequence involving the interaction btw 3 women that is projected onto a screen mounted to the wall of a dark room. EXTREME SLOW MOTION Comments on cycles of life – relationships btw people *human condition friendships Quotes history (Pontormo) – references Durer’s The Four Witches 1497 THE PASSION SERIES 2000-2002 Intended to slow down human observation of emotions and human interaction. Explores extreme emotional states – emotions are the subject How to convey the power and complexity of emotions by depicting faces and bodies of models Emphasis on the symbolic Crossover btw the real and the fantastic Universal themes of transformation, memory, self-awareness and human emotion. Uses high def tech in slow motion described as expanding vision in all aspects
Time lapse allows our mind to process and engage with the image more intimately and consciously
Response to the contemporary syndrome of not being able to empathise with others. he defines humans as being detached from their inner selves and too consumed by their manufactured realities to properly experience human interaction and emotion. Viola studies the human condition in a contemporary context and the need to pause occasionally and reflect. His work responds to this contemporary condition by evoking a sense of inward or introspective reflection.
Subject matter-the human condition, sections of life, interactions of the most ordinary - touching something common to all by referencing the ordinary. EMERGENCE 2002 – commissioned by the J.PAUL GETTY museum Inspired by Pieta by Masolino, a fresco of the dead Christ. Viola staged a scene evoking entombment and resurrection. A young man emerges from a well as water pours from it and he is laid to rest by two women. Associations of death and birth, grief and pity. The pale, elongated form of the male recalls both early Christian models and later mannerist works. Slow motion playback
Early art practice 1970s – strong interplay btw political and social activism and artistic practice. Viola engaged in video art and broadcasting to convey social political messages. Technological revolution of the late 70s was about changing the world, accessing all corners of the world with information. Nature Landscape – important experimental element of Viola’s art practice. Plants himself in isolated landscapes, in vast environments to gain a connection to the environment. The vastness of the environment reveals human relationships with the land. How powerless we are in our relationship with nature, yet how connected we are to its elements and life. Solitude and liberation of Viola’s experiences when he visits untouched, expansive landscapes is compared to a spiritual experience as he is forced to be still, quiet, contemplative, reflective and observant. Sensory experiences of the landscape are magnified – “the moment one realises something without verbalising it” Post modern frame: Viola’s aims 1970s – post mod artists aimed to demystify the role of the artists to abolish the fetish for the new, the avant garde. They argue that avant-garde artists have fed the western capitalist system with its insatiable need for novelty and new styles. Creates a feeling of fragmentation. Meaning is communicated through a multi-layered language of symbols (visual codes) – open to interpretations and weighted according to personal values, associations and methods of discovery becomes intertextual appropriation etc Post modern world, dominated by electronic media, video, photography, and performance art Creates meaning through a built up system of codes, conventions and traditions. Post modern artists break those traditions or purposely recontextualise the codes in order to challenge our perceptions. Viola encompasses the use of non traditional media as well as being in contact with a wide ranging group of artists, musicians, film makers, choreographers and poets take pleasure in making art that defies and erases the boundaries btw forms of art Uses video to expand the concept of art as it is presented in museums. Contemporary world is government by economic forces as well as being an age of extreme scepticism. Viola aims to transcend this world, through the direct personal observation of the everyday world and presents this in his installations as poetic intimidations of the sublime in everyday life. Electronic installation artists – uses the spiritual traditions of both western and eastern cultures Time based art/artist Characteristics of video art: sound, speed, time – new qualities “I want to look so close at things that their intensity burns through your retina and onto the surface of your mind. The video camera is well suited to looking closely at things, elevating the commonplace to higher levels of awareness. I want each image to be the first image, to shine with the intensity of its own first-born being” 1980 Saturate film with colour connection/quotes paintings Installation (large screens/TVs) connection with paintings – manipulates the audience
Movement – time (sec/mins): sounds, scale, speed uses to manipulate the audience (slow to exaggerate/highlight his intention)
Intends his work to be a means of transformation, both for himself and for viewers through a heightened experience of the world and self “timeless messages of humanity, striving to perfect ourselves” Emphasis on the symbolic, exploring the suggestive power of the image and mans metaphysical relationship with his surrounding Assisted by his notebook which he sees as ‘a journal or a kind of travel logue, mapping a personal course through various readings, quotations, associations, observations, experiments and ideas for pieces, all jumbled into one’.
Travels making videos in the Solomon islands, Java, Bali, Indonesia where he recorded traditional music and performing arts. Himalayas religious art and ritual in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and to Fiji to document fire walking ceremonies of the south Indians. Textbook: Bill Viola 1951-, USA. His work involves intense metaphysical experiences heightened by the installation spaces, which are dramatically darkened, and by the multiple screens or very large screens. Viola has been creating video installations since the 1970s and is concerned with spiritual and identity
issues.
Conceptual framework Artist
Raised in Queens in New York He had an English mother and American father He studied at Syracuse university He has a fine arts degree He is a part of the rainforest project “the real is considered to be only what can be touches, named, observed and recorded. Viola’s installations aim to transcend the material world He has re-contextualised art making of the past through using new technology. His work has the same reaction from the audience but with new technology. He encapsulates you “as a technological artist of today”
Artwork
Uses influences of high culture of that time, and popular culture (simular to frank Gehry ) Use of new technologies No dialogue or narrative in his works so audience can reflect on their life experiences He uses costumes, props, lighting, actors diversity of means …show more content…
Lighting techniques and compost ion of past renaissance works. Viola attempts to use his artworks to stimulate a sense of empathy and thoughtfulness. Visual codes of water, light Intertextual he uses a diverse range of symbols and cultures and influences Subjective for the audience , contemplate and inner reflection for the audience to gain a deeper experience His works relate to extreme emotion All deal with the human experience of over whelming temperamental and leaves us transformed and changed Human condition He hopes audience will slow down and understand their day to day life through a new contemplate reflection. The diversity of technologies and fast paces of life Subject matter there isn’t enough time for people to experience genuine emotion Works are all stories behind people’s emotions (as we don’t know what their upset about , his works becomes a projection screen for ourselves When working with a group (actors), he has to speak to people individually about their own life experiences rather than directing them as a group Shot at 240 frames a second (high definition film) 10 more times more information than a normal recording to really see and slow down and contemplate the human condition Digital cutting edge technology used for editing (similar to Frank Gehry powerful impact on audience , one through video one through sculpture ) Process: 1.His work comes first from writing, as he gets his influences from texts. 2. Actors of a certain look and feel through auditions (without a script because there is no dialogue , so he gives them an exercise to do eg a poem )people who make their bodies apart of the work 3. Expanding vision in all its manifestations , becomes an event like a flower opening. Your mind allows you to catch up with the image and contemplate because of the extreme slow motion Finding where the nature images of landscapes and electronic images, where he went to nature to find these images (Canada and desert) Re-contextualises and appropriates artworks Video – part of daily life, using what is apart of popular culture and making high art
World
CONTEMPORARY WORLD 21st century society and its technology – fast pace of society, rapid moving and transforming contemporary world threatens to engulf humanity Relationship between society and world = crucially important Postmodern art refers to art of the present time that is experimental and challenged traditional ideas. Reacting againt society which is dominated by electronic media, video, photography and performance art. mass mediated and technological driven society Due to the fast pace of contemporary work people have a lack of ability and time to reflect and understand the true meaning of life.
Audience
Viola provokes an audience to contemplate and engage in self discovery Viola invites an audience to participate both spiritually and intellectually “he wants each image to be the first image to shine with the intensity of its own first-born being Subjective under their own life Viola intends that the images represented in “the passions” series become a projection of the audiences own experiences. The artist aims to create a meditative environment in which a spiritual relationship between the audience and the artwork can be established. Through his digital time based works, he intends to submerge the audience’s conscience in a deep meditative and observant state of mind, stimulating an ephemeral, sense of tranquillity and escapism. Sound and vision stimulate the audience
Influences Post modern world/contemporary dominated by electronic media, video, photography and performance art age of extreme scepticism Religious influences
Studied eastern religious texts – 13th century Persian poet and mystic Jalhudin Rumi and Zen Buddhism
Pre Renaissance/early Renaissance art (Christian religion) Renaissance painters or ‘old masters’ ‘young radicals’
Notion of a spiritual relationship btw the work and the viewer was further explored through Viola’s exploration of paintings by the old masters (1300s-1700s)
Spiritual overwhelming sense of some thing ‘greater than’ emotional impact
Viola quotes and re-interprets historical paintings through time-based digital works. The intense and varied expressions of these historical art works is translated through Viola’s subjects as they enact and perform “something untouchable and invisible” – interview with Betty Churcher, ABC Viola’s time in Florence was spent exploring the cathedrals and churches of the Renaissance, lingering with an audiotape recorder, making a series of acoustic records of much of the religious architecture of the city. Particularly influenced by the technical and aesthetic invention of the early Renaissance painters, who he defines as the “young radicals of their time” “it impressed me regardless of ones religious beliefs, the enormous resonant stone halls of the medieval cathedrals have an undeniable effect on the inner state of the viewer. And sound seemed to carry so much feeling of the ineffable” Led him to investigate the internal spaces of these churches as environments filled with images. Large scale and vast spaces filled with religious iconography are translated by the experiential and sensory impact they had on Viola. He states that these basilica’s (churches) consume and overpower the viewer into a state of awe and reflection and spiritual meditation. Technology and new era of art
Nam June Paik (Korean) – whose exploration of video and exacting specifications for installation and presentation made a great impression on Viola. Paik pioneered the use of monitors as elements in environmental artworks. Subverting the video image as it appeared on the monitor Paik recognised its dominant role in Western culture. Electronic music “the whole world of electronics, circuitry, and analogue-wave theory…which was a great basis for going into video” Minimalist legacy: film and video Richard Serra/Andy Warhol/Bruce Nauman use film as an artistic medium
Physical experiences
Nearly drowning at the age of 10 “the thing I remember is the imagery of this incredibly beautiful, serene blue-green world…it was peaceful and mysterious” Diverse experiences of other cultures “sense of place has been of primary importance in my work. I have travelled all over the world to gather images for my videotapes. I have found that the more intense my experience at a place making a tape, the more power the piece absorbs for itself” “my work is a perpetual evolution and development of a series of ideas that I had when I was younger”
Cycle of life – concerned with issues of birth, death and memory (birth, passing, rebirth) Water, tears and transcendence: Water and fire – both potent and perennial symbols Water metaphor for death and renewal
*THE MESSENGER 1998 – video + sound installation The Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, October Commissioned for the monumental space of the Great West Door of the 12th century Durham Cathedral Normanisc spiritual house *(link with spiritual/renaissance influences) Video and sounds installation which follows the rise and fall of a floating male figure – surfacing and gasping for air and sinking back slowly in the dark water. Metaphor for emergence, renewal, rebirth, revelations, and the personal journey of individual existence. “it reminds you of where you came from. When you see the man emerge out of the water and take a breath, there is a birth every time he comes back into our world” - *THE PASSING 1991 A reflection of birth and death “these events focused my investigations and interest in a very real way…(my mothers) death gave me a deeper understanding of things I had been grappling with for most of my life” incorporating memory, reality, and fantasy, The Passing includes an image of Viola lying underwater, fully clothed, as though drowned. The Passing marked a turning point shifting his role from subject to viewer. Simplicity of black and white represents the inevitably of life which should be cherished and celebrated. *THE GREETING 1995 Inspired by the painting of the Visitation, 1528-30 by the Italian artists Pontormo, The G is a video image sequence involving the interaction btw 3 women that is projected onto a screen mounted to the wall of a dark room. EXTREME SLOW MOTION Comments on cycles of life – relationships btw people *human condition friendships Quotes history (Pontormo) – references Durer’s The Four Witches 1497 THE PASSION SERIES 2000-2002 Intended to slow down human observation of emotions and human interaction. Explores extreme emotional states – emotions are the subject How to convey the power and complexity of emotions by depicting faces and bodies of models Emphasis on the symbolic Crossover btw the real and the fantastic Universal themes of transformation, memory, self-awareness and human emotion. Uses high def tech in slow motion described as expanding vision in all aspects
Time lapse allows our mind to process and engage with the image more intimately and consciously
Response to the contemporary syndrome of not being able to empathise with others. he defines humans as being detached from their inner selves and too consumed by their manufactured realities to properly experience human interaction and emotion. Viola studies the human condition in a contemporary context and the need to pause occasionally and reflect. His work responds to this contemporary condition by evoking a sense of inward or introspective reflection.
Subject matter-the human condition, sections of life, interactions of the most ordinary - touching something common to all by referencing the ordinary. EMERGENCE 2002 – commissioned by the J.PAUL GETTY museum Inspired by Pieta by Masolino, a fresco of the dead Christ. Viola staged a scene evoking entombment and resurrection. A young man emerges from a well as water pours from it and he is laid to rest by two women. Associations of death and birth, grief and pity. The pale, elongated form of the male recalls both early Christian models and later mannerist works. Slow motion playback
Early art practice 1970s – strong interplay btw political and social activism and artistic practice. Viola engaged in video art and broadcasting to convey social political messages. Technological revolution of the late 70s was about changing the world, accessing all corners of the world with information. Nature Landscape – important experimental element of Viola’s art practice. Plants himself in isolated landscapes, in vast environments to gain a connection to the environment. The vastness of the environment reveals human relationships with the land. How powerless we are in our relationship with nature, yet how connected we are to its elements and life. Solitude and liberation of Viola’s experiences when he visits untouched, expansive landscapes is compared to a spiritual experience as he is forced to be still, quiet, contemplative, reflective and observant. Sensory experiences of the landscape are magnified – “the moment one realises something without verbalising it” Post modern frame: Viola’s aims 1970s – post mod artists aimed to demystify the role of the artists to abolish the fetish for the new, the avant garde. They argue that avant-garde artists have fed the western capitalist system with its insatiable need for novelty and new styles. Creates a feeling of fragmentation. Meaning is communicated through a multi-layered language of symbols (visual codes) – open to interpretations and weighted according to personal values, associations and methods of discovery becomes intertextual appropriation etc Post modern world, dominated by electronic media, video, photography, and performance art Creates meaning through a built up system of codes, conventions and traditions. Post modern artists break those traditions or purposely recontextualise the codes in order to challenge our perceptions. Viola encompasses the use of non traditional media as well as being in contact with a wide ranging group of artists, musicians, film makers, choreographers and poets take pleasure in making art that defies and erases the boundaries btw forms of art Uses video to expand the concept of art as it is presented in museums. Contemporary world is government by economic forces as well as being an age of extreme scepticism. Viola aims to transcend this world, through the direct personal observation of the everyday world and presents this in his installations as poetic intimidations of the sublime in everyday life. Electronic installation artists – uses the spiritual traditions of both western and eastern cultures Time based art/artist Characteristics of video art: sound, speed, time – new qualities “I want to look so close at things that their intensity burns through your retina and onto the surface of your mind. The video camera is well suited to looking closely at things, elevating the commonplace to higher levels of awareness. I want each image to be the first image, to shine with the intensity of its own first-born being” 1980 Saturate film with colour connection/quotes paintings Installation (large screens/TVs) connection with paintings – manipulates the audience
Movement – time (sec/mins): sounds, scale, speed uses to manipulate the audience (slow to exaggerate/highlight his intention)
Intends his work to be a means of transformation, both for himself and for viewers through a heightened experience of the world and self “timeless messages of humanity, striving to perfect ourselves” Emphasis on the symbolic, exploring the suggestive power of the image and mans metaphysical relationship with his surrounding Assisted by his notebook which he sees as ‘a journal or a kind of travel logue, mapping a personal course through various readings, quotations, associations, observations, experiments and ideas for pieces, all jumbled into one’.
Travels making videos in the Solomon islands, Java, Bali, Indonesia where he recorded traditional music and performing arts. Himalayas religious art and ritual in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and to Fiji to document fire walking ceremonies of the south Indians. Textbook: Bill Viola 1951-, USA. His work involves intense metaphysical experiences heightened by the installation spaces, which are dramatically darkened, and by the multiple screens or very large screens. Viola has been creating video installations since the 1970s and is concerned with spiritual and identity
issues.