7/1/2023 0 Comments Moca miami jobsVIOLA Up until then, I was never interested in narratives and the classic way of making movies. But since The Greeting (1995), you’ve used actors and staged the scenes. XIN Your early video works would often record simple actions that reflected your inner life in an abstract way. This is when I really began to make a deeper connection to the spiritual dimension. But after losing my mother, it really hit me hard that we are here on this earth for a very short period of time and that we must make the most of it. VIOLA I have been interested in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions since I was in college. The best examples are The Passing (1991), Heaven and Earth (1992) and Nantes Triptych (1992). Since then your work has addressed cycles of birth, death and rebirth. Your mother passed away in 1991, the same year that your second son was born. XIN The loss of your parents had a profound effect on you, and each time, your work experienced an incredible transformation. To my mind, technology is ultimately a spiritual force and a part of our inner beings. It can teach us how to see deeply, which is the essence of all spiritual practices. VIOLA The camera is the embodiment of an always-open eye. XIN We tend to think of video technology as being machines and digital codes, but you have realized many spiritual images with this medium. Since the human brain runs on about 4 watts of electricity, we are connected in a fundamental way to the same energy. All technology is based on the exchange of energy. But it is also the marriage of technology and biology. VIOLA Yes, this connection is going to be monumental in the coming century. I think art and technology work more closely now than in any other time in history. Through this optical system, the two images were superimposed in the editing room. They created a mirror/prism system to align the latest high-definition video camera with my 25-year-old black-and-white surveillance camera. The other was an optical device specially designed for this project by a group called Pace. It took us three days to make it completely level and precisely aligned, so the water was like a sheet of glass. Water was pouring over a specially designed laser-cut razor edge. We created a wall of water that was 10 feet wide and 8 feet high. VIOLA I worked with two innovative technologies. I’m curious how you achieved that effect. XIN In this series, the grainy black-and-white image in the background co-exists with the high-definition color image of the foreground in the same frame. When a person is passing through the water, a transformation to full color begins. They pass through an invisible threshold in the form of a wall of water that is so transparent and clear that we cannot see it until the flow is disturbed. Gazing upon it has no beginning or no end, in this world and the next.” On each altar I mounted a vertical plasma screen that showed a series of individuals walking toward us from a dark, obscure black and white world. I was inspired by a text of the Andalusian Sufi master Ibn Arabi (1165-1240): “The self is an ocean without a shore. There were three large altars, which, according to the Christian tradition, were places for the dead to connect with the living. I didn’t have any preconceived ideas until I saw the place. There are also five pieces from Viola’s “Transfigurations” series (2007-2008) depicting people at the threshold between life and death.ĬAMILLE XIN I’d like to begin by discussing your influential “Transfigurations” series, of which Ocean Without a Shore was created for the Venice Biennale in 2007.īILL VIOLA I was invited to make an on-site video installation in a small 15th-century deconsecrated chapel, San Gallo, just off the Piazza San Marco. While reflection, time and human connection continue to be the themes in the show, other selected pieces from the “Passions” series (2000–2002) focus on the in-depth study of various extreme expressions and their detailed emotional transformation, as in The Quintet of the Astonished (2000) and Observance (2002). The Reflecting Pool (1977–79) is the only early work, but its technique and theme are as current as the rest of the pieces. Currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, “Bill Viola: Liber Insularum” is a major exhibition that includes 15 installations.
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