Emergence

My final blog is yet again from "The Passions" exhibit and this video is entitled "Emergence". This video was in color, projected on a wall in a dark room and was 6.5 feet by 6.5 feet. In the video there were two women on either side of some sort of square dressed in Renaissance style clothing. A man is elevated through the square with water pouring out and he looked at if he was painted white, and he had no clothing. The women took him out of the square and lay him on the ground in front of it and covered him with a sheet.

He drew his inspiration from Italian Renaissance artist Masolino's fresco, Pieta. It depicted dead Christ's body in its tomb being supported by Mary and John the Evangelist. The video and painting are extremely similar, they are basically the same thing but in different formats. John Walsh, curator of the exhibit said "They really look a lot like old master paintings...but they move." The painting also plays a very close resemblance to Peter Paul Rubens' "The Entombment". It seems like most of the work in this exhibit is based on older paintings.

This painting brought forth both feelings of life and death. As he rises out of the square and water pours out it is as if he is being born, but he is completely white. And immediately lay down and a sheet is put over him. Then I think to two women are gathering around him as if they were mourning. At first I thought they were coddling him like a newborn, but as I kept looking their body language suggested the opposite. They seem to be holding him like he is going somewhere, like they are afraid of what will happen. Maybe this ties in the good emotions of birth and the bad emotions when death is thought of. I found this very interesting, but I didn't like it very much. Compared to the painting it was very bland. If the background had more vibrant colors I think I would have enjoyed it more.


"Emergence"- Bill Viola







"Emergence". Bill Viola: The Passions. The J Paul Getty Museum, 2003. Web. 8 Mar. 2010. .

Silent Mountain

Another video that Bill Viola made from The Passions exhibit is Silent Mountain. The color video was silent and displayed on two screens mounted side-by-side on the wall. One screen has an actress and the other an actor. At the beginning they look panicked and anxious and as the video progress the feelings become more and more obvious. Eventually they both start screaming, but without sound you just see their torso and face.

Bill Viola has said that the 15th century painting "The Anonciation" by Dieric Bouts inspired him. He said this about the painting, "The Virgin turning away from the Messenger, the Archangel Gabriel, as he brings the news- her eyes downcast, hidden, as her hands rise, closing to form the gesture of prayer, or opening in a gesture of acceptance? In any case here is the painter's ecsatic leap into the world of movement." So, he was making the video and trying to make it as if it was a painting. They move slowly and the camera doesn't move so at times it's almost like you're not watching a video, you're watching a paiting move.

I found this very interestings. While watching it I felt like i could hear the people yelling, their faces and body movements made me hear the sound that wasn't there. Bill Viola said, "Probably the loudest scream I have ever recorded is in the soundless work Silent Mountain." I really felt bad for the people in the videos. They appear to be in so much agony and you watch them progess as something gets them more and more upset. It really made me think about me own feelings of empathy. I enjoyed this video and am finding myself enjoying video art more now.


"The Anonciation" by Dieric Bouts





"Silent Mountain." Bill Viola: The Passions. The J Paul Getty Museum, 2003. Web. 8 Mar. 2010. .

Picture from Six Heads

Six Heads

Bill Viola is one of the most well known successful video artists. I found one of his exhibits, The Passions, had three videos which i thought were interesting. One of which being, Six Heads. The work was done on a plasma display mounted on a wall roughly 40 inches by 24 inches. There were six different squares on the screen three rows and two columns with the same actors head in all of them. Throughout the film the man is making different emotions with his face in each square, all the while the camera is at a close-up of his face.

Viola was went through a hard time when is mother passed away and his child was born. During this time he had many different emotions running through him. After a few years he recollected to this and decided to portray all humans emotions. In Six Heads he has an actor portray the faces of anger, joy, sorrow, fear, awe and finally a dream-like state. Bill Viola said "We are comprised of many selves, with many faces." He was taken by the idea that all of these emotions coexist inside a person and can make them act completely differently.

Six Heads really made me think about my own emotions, also on the emotions of those around. I know some people who are upset a lot and I see them making the faces of anger or fear. The same goes for all of the faces. I feel as if he is trying to get others to let their emotions go. He has one person displayed six times simultaneously with different expressions on each face, showing all the emotions he goes through. I also thought it was interesting that he chose a man for this video. In today's culture men aren't usually considered to be emotional, yet he chose a man to be in the video. So far, this is my favorite work by Bill Viola.

Bibliography

"Six Heads." Bill Viola: The Passions. The J Paul Getty Museum, 2003. Web. 8 Mar. 2010 <http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/viola/art.html>