Bill Viola

Bill Viola
b. 1951
BFA in Experimental Studios: Syracuse University, 1973

Honorary Doctorates:
Syracuse University (1995), The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1997), California Institute of the Arts (2000), and Royal College of Art, London (2004) among others, and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000

Nantes Triptych, 1992: Video/Sound Installation

The Crossing, 1996: Sound/Video Installation


Catherine's Room, 2001: Color Video on 5 LCD Flat panels mounted on wall

Going Forth by Day, 2002: Five Part Video/Sound installation using 7 projectors and 10 speakers.
"Fire Birth," The Path," "The Deluge," "The Voyage," "First Light"


Ocean Without a Shore, 2007: Video/Sound Installation, Triptych on High-Defintion Plasma Screens


Nine Inch Nails Tour, 2000: Single Channel Triptych
Part 1
Part 2

Sources:
Wikipedia
YouTube
Tate Online
BillViola.com
Catasonic.com
Guggenheim.org

Self Portrait

Arduous Delight (3'53")

This video was created from the stand point of a classical self portrait. The frame and surroundings remain still with the figure being fragmented in his movements. The concept for the piece was to bring the viewer into the experience of practice by presenting multiple slivers of time as a single event.

Blog 4

Compression-Fern (Face), Dennis Oppenheim (1970)

This video consists of Dennis Oppenheim standing in the frame visible from about mid stomach up and in front of a pale green background. He is holding branches of a Fern bush in his hands at mid chest level so that the branches fan out covering his face. Throughout the duration of the video Dennis begins to crumple and compress the branches in his hands until eventually they all fit into his grip and nothing of them could be seen, thus revealing his face behind the Fern.

This piece works on multiple levels both as a video and as documentation of an event happening. I think an important element of the piece is the physical struggle Dennis has trying to wrestle with the branches and getting them to compress. I think this piece also works as a portrait in the sense that classical portraiture allows a subject to be the focal element in contrast to its surroundings. Initially the Fern is the subject for the portrait as its form and color contrast dramatically to both the background wall and to the presence of Dennis, which also acts as a sort of background element. Eventually the Fern is taken out of the frame through the compressing and Dennis is left as the portrait subject.