Bill Viola
Bill Viola is internationally recognised as on of todays leading artists. For over 40 years he has created architectural video installations, video films, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, as well as works for television broadcast, concerts, opera and sacred spaces. Viola’s video installations (total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound) employ state-of-the-art technologies and are distinguished by their precision and direct simplicity. They are shown in museums and galleries worldwide and are found in many distinguished collections. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His works focus on universal human experiences – birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness – and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism and Christian Mysticism. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience allowing viewers to experience the work directly and in their own personal way.
The video above is one of Bill’s pieces of work “Tristan’s Ascension”. It is one that we watched in class. Tristan’s Ascension describes the ascent of the soul in the space after death as it is awakened and drawn up in a backwards flowing waterfall.
I personally find it a bit boring and pointless. The video goes on for around 5 minutes. I got bored after around 1 minute. I couldn’t understand how it was meant to make people feel, and i didn’t really understand the meaning.
Awards
1984 Polaroid Video Art Award for outstanding achievement, USA
1987 Maya Deren Award, American Film Institute, USA
1989 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award, USA
1993 Skowhegan Medal (Video Installation), USA
1993 Medienkunstpreis, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, and Siemens Kulturprogramm, Germany
2003 Cultural Leadership Award, American Federal of Arts, USA
2006 NORD/LB Art Prize, Bremen, Germany
2009 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, MIT, Cambridge, MA
2009 Catalonia International Prize, Barcelona, Spain
2011 Arents Award for Distinguished Alumni, Syracuse University, New York
2011 Praemium Imperiale, the Japan Art Association, Tokyo
2013 National Artist Award, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass Village, CO
2013 Aurora Award, Aurora Picture Show, Houston, TX
Sophie Gollop 