Bill Viola’s themes provide a mood of openness and curiosity, many a time asking the viewer to examine themselves.

Viola
brings paintings to life using electronic images; they transmit his concerns about the spiritual self and the boundaries of
perception related to it. Although many view technology as a threat to the principals of artistic expression, Viola’s panel
screens depict an atmosphere of life and emotional transformations equally or maybe more powerfully than the sixteenth-
century paintings that he likes to reference in his work. Many of his works are composed of a singular figure (usually a person)
in the middle of the canvas taking part in an action, this can be anything from getting lit on fire to a warm embrace. One thing
that stays consistent with most of his works is the slowing down of video to capture a raw moment: most of his works last
longer than 10 minutes which really does allow to viewer to get lost in the small and meticulous movements present in his
work. It may give viewers a new-found appreciation for the everyday normalities evident. For example in ‘The Greeting’ The
expressions and gestures of ‘Mary’ and ‘Elizabeth’ have been amplified – this clever use of over-expression and slow pace
allows for viewers to get lost in the art piece.
The pieces themselves use a blend of auditory and visual cues. Despite the fact that his work contains very little texture and
form due to it being on a panel digitally rather than being a ‘traditional’ art piece, the use of that secondary sense of hearing
really does elevate its depth and stops the work from suffering by being unvaried and monotone.

I enjoy Bill Viola’s work because of his use of symbolism and parallels to past religious
works and events in his art. I find it to be an incredibly unique standpoint and one where I
think it benefits from the use of digital equipment to really stress the contrast between the
two mediums. By doing this he also addresses the people who believe art should only be
done by hand and anything else is not art. By challenging the stigma and creating pieces
with resonate with my personal theme of religion I found him to be an inspiring artist to
study.
Although it is not directly equivalent to renaissance artists like Da Vinci both share similar
themes of religion however Viola chooses to portray multiple religions whereas most
renaissance artists of the time only examined Catholicism – a play by play of how times
are changing and what was wildly the consensus back in that time period is no longer the
major norm.
Moving forward my artwork (based on religion) will more have more notable examples of
motion in place. I particularly love his works involving water, something about the
darkness and mysteriousness of the water in some or the shear intensity of a scene in a
single frame really echo the type of art I am going for in the future.
Bill Viola
Bill Viola is an American contemporary video artist. His medium involves electronic, sound and image
technology in new media and has ranged from single videotapes to immersive architectural video installations.
Deeply involved in Buddhism, Viola’s preoccupations have been the inner or spiritual-self and the boundaries of
consciousness Since the death of his parents and birth of his children I the 1990s, his work has often drawn on
his own life to explore recurring themes of birth, death, self-discovery and personal transformation.

Viola was born on January 25th, 1951 and is currently aged 71. He grew up in Queens,
New York and Westbury New York. John Bowne P.S 20 is where he attended school
and, although it was not an arts based school, he was captain of the TV Squad; which
may have set the building blocks to his eventual passion for creating electronic art.
However, his most discernible moment occurred in late childhood, where – on vacation
with his family in the mountains – he nearly drowned in a lake: an experience he has
revisited many a time and recalled it as ‘’The most beautiful world I’ve ever seen in my
life’’ and ‘’peaceful.’’ This event may have triggered his interest in water and emptiness
in a select few his artworks: examples being ‘The Messenger’ or ‘Five Angels for the
Millenium’, in which figures can be seen sinking into the murky depths of deep water,
however the inept and strange feeling of safety is also vocalised throughout the clip
(without even using a single word). Viola enrolled into Syracuse University and in 1972
graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in experimental studies.

Viola quickly picked up a job at the Everson Museum of Art after graduating and for three years he studied music there with
composer David Tudor – in time founding a new music group ‘Composers Inside Electronics’ While working part-time as a
technical director at a video studio in Italy, he encountered video artists Bruce Nauman and Nam June Paik – it was through
these connections that Viola would base and adapt his works. In 1977, Viola was invited to show work at La Trobe University
(Melbourne Australia) it was here that he would meet his (now) wife, cultural arts director, Kira Perov. His marriage seeded
the beginning of a salient lifelong collaboration in travelling the globe together and working on pieces together.
The two would travel extremely frequently taking in the cultures and architecture of the cities they would visit and Viola,
moreover, was fascinated in religion and beliefs. In 1980, they would board a flight to Japan where they lodged for a year and
a half. Here Viola studied Buddhism with a zen master; this would influence his work and motion it to a more philosophical
direction.

In 1995 he represented the United States at the Venice Biennale in which he produced a
series of works titled: Buried Secrets, including ‘The Greeting’ one of his most widely
known works. The greeting was a contemporary interpretation of Jacopo Carucci’s ‘The
Visitation’ a religious artwork depicting the meeting of the Virgin Mary with her cousin.
In 1997, the Whitney Museum of American Art organized and toured internationally a
major 25-year retrospective of Viola's work documenting the sheer number of his works on
display at functions and museums all over the world.