Artist research: Bill Viola

Bill viola is an influential video artist who helped popularise the use of video in art. He is an international and critically acclaimed artist represented by three different galleries in London, New York and Seoul: www.blainsouthern.com, www.jamescohan.com and www.kukje.org.

There is a great and detailled biography about Bill on the Blain Southern Gallery site: http://www.blainsouthern.com/artists/bill-viola
I recommend reading this, Bill has visited a lot of the world and has a lot of amazing achievements which I find really inspirational.


One thing that I found interesting is that there are no official versions of the films used in his installations online. I feel that this is because these pieces really have to be experienced in-situ and a video just won't do the experience justice. Instead, there are photographs online. Bill Viola doesn't even have a gallery on his website; instead there is one or two images on every single page. There are also one or two images of his work on the gallery's sites linked above. What I find interesting is that every photo is different and definitely doesn't even cover half of what he's done. This comes across as A: a bit mysterious and B: a bit of a treasure hunt.

This piece is titled 'inverted birth'. It definitely makes me think of the ooze and gunge used in body horror films. Dropping different materials and elements on performers then presenting it on a large portrait screen is definitely a trademark of Bill Viola.

'Elements'

Parts of Bill Viola's work really appeal to me-

• Digital and physical being combined, something that I use in my own art quite a bit.
• The 'multidimensionality' of multiple films next to one another. Not only does he use the time dimension but by repeating things over physically next to one another or using each video panel as a window to a different world adds another dimension.
  
• The feeling of experimentation that quite a few of his pieces have, especially his earlier work:

As someone who likes to experiment, especially with video, photography and time, this talks to me.
I'd really like to go and see his show at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park: http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/bill-viola

The theme of our current project is about selecting and remixing as well as communication between art and it's audience.
I think we were suggested Bill Viola because of the way he will frame different things in video panels and they interact in space. This is like the windows and frames to different worlds in David Salle's paintings.


Edit: I found a big digital gallery of his work: http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/bill-viola/1