Bill Viola's exhibiting works

Bill Viola is a leading contemporary video artist. His artwork often focuses on essential human experiences such as death and birth, ‘His work addresses the big questions: mind, perception, reality, meaning, purpose, the soul, death, transcendence…Viola can present images of strange beauty – a beauty some viewers find excruciating.’ (Freeland, 2004). Many of his artworks are characteristic of the merging of life into death, such as the piece ‘Heaven and Earth’, in which two video monitors face each other; an old woman on her deathbed on one and a newborn baby on the other. The juxtaposition of these two videos, reflecting on to the screen of the other, is evocative of the cycle of life and death and the gap between the spiritual and the material. The symmetry of the arranged screens suggests balance and fragility. Similarly, the piece ‘Five Angels for the Millennium’ accentuates the succession of life and death. Viola says of the creation process for ‘Five Angels for the Millennium’, ‘ I had inadvertently created images of ascension, from death to birth.' (Viola, 2003). This art piece incorporates five large projections of a figure plunging into water, altered five times which work in perfect unity. Viola filmed a drowning man, after the trauma of losing his father.  Yet it was not until later that he decided to alter the video to represent not only death but birth. Each sequence is slowed down, then extended or accelerated, and programed so that the sound of the splash would be amplified. Claude Barbe suggests, 'They erupt out of water into rendered air, then disappear with noisy crescendos; or are drawn into the depths of watery churnings and dissipate with a roar.' (Barbe, p 350, 2005). Sprays of water form around the figures like wings, hence Viola's reference to angels. The first installation is the 'Ascending Angel', which pictures a figure floating upwards, breaking through the bubbling surface and floating heavenwards. This angel represents the soul leaving the body after death. Adjacent to this is the 'Creation Angel', in which the figure is seen with outstretched arms, suggesting the crucifixion of Christ, one of the most famous deaths in history. Viola often uses religious iconography in his work to depict meaning. The dramatic 'Fire Angel' contrasts the other videos as the figure erupts through blood red water. The deep colours make the figure stand apart from the rest. The blood red ocean is usually associated with death and intense emotions associated with death and birth. The 'Birth Angel', in which a figure shoots upwards through its frame, represents a being arriving in the world. Juxtaposed to this figure is the final 'Departing Angel', which pictures a figure falling into the water's depths. After crossing the barrier, the sinking, lifeless figure slowly falls into death. These 'Angels' beautifully represent life merging into death, and the rituals and emotions associated with this. Another important element to these sequences, apart from the visuals, are the dynamic sounds the form meaning to the pieces. The bodies are accompanied with a resonant crash; a hyper slow, amplified impact of when one dives into water. This immersive and reverberant soundscape, accompanied with the rippling and sparking of the watery surface create a powerful yet tranquil impact on the viewer. Viola's 'Angels' emergence from water are representative of differing meanings in themselves, yet together form the cycle of life and death.In the River Gallery's opening exhibition, 'Passing Realms', Viola's 'Angels' will capture and confront people with these intense experiences of delving into death.