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. .