The piece above, “The Reflecting Pool,” by Bill Viola is a video of what appears to be a rectangular pool with woods in the background. The perspective makes the viewer feel like they are standing at the opposite edge of the pool with the sound of running water behind the viewer. There is no visual evidence of this of the source of this sound and the camera never moves. A grown man emerges from the woods and quietly walks to the edge of the pool, opposite the viewer. He stands there staring at the pool and suddenly jumps canon ball style and the frame freezes with him hovering over the pool. Everything thing around him including the sound continues to move. The viewer expects a big splash with water spraying everywhere but the energy is disrupted when the video of the jumper stops in mid-air. As the video continues there are figures that appear in water that seem to be reflections of people who are not on the waters edge. There are also ripples made in the water that are not initiated by an obvious source. The man still hovers over the pool and as the viewer’s attention is distracted by the figures reflection in the water the hovering figure slowly disappears. Finally, towards the end of the video a naked man emerges from beneath the water, crawls out of the pool and disappears into the woods.
One review form brita.net had an interesting opinion on Viola’s work, “When we return to the real world having seen ‘The Reflecting Pool’, we may be irritated. What was the mysterious infinite loop all about? According to Viola, the observer was witness to a baptism, a person's rebirth reflected by the water. And he plays dramatically with our perception: The frozen individual disappears from mid-air like a phantom, he "dies" and renews himself in another place as a shadow in the water, to finally prepare to jump again - a symbol of the cycle of constant, cryptic processes of change in our lives. The actual "rite of baptism" however, the immersion, remains invisible to the observer. “
I think this work has such a spiritual quality about it. The sound of the running water is mesmerizing which encouraged me to slip into a deeper level or a trance-like state of mind and the reflection of humans subtly appear in the water which made me feel as if they were spirits. Bill Viola’s work somewhat reminds me of Andy Warhol’s films and the fact that in both of their work the camera remains stationary while filming. Viola’s work also reminds me of Damien Hirst’s, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living from 1991. Both Hirst’s and Viola’s work seem to have a similar concept of life and death.
The next piece is presented near Piazza San Marco, the church of San Gallo, which was formerly a private chapel. Viola directly incorporates its internal architecture into his piece, using the three existing stone altars as video screens. It is a video of separate individuals that are walking or standing directly in front of the camera with the sound of rain or water falling. The background behind the person is dark and black and the image is black and white. The quality of the film is very fuzzy and old fashion looking. The individual walks toward the camera and is showered by a transparent wall of water. As they walk through the wall of water the film turns to color and the quality is much clearer. The water seems to represent the veil between life and death. On the death side of the water the individuals are in black and white and on the life side they are in color. The experience of each individual passing from death to life is intense as well as unique.
From the article Bill Viola’s million dollar video artwork, Colin Drucker says “Each person we meet tells a story without saying a thing. You want them to speak; you want to know the sadness behind their eyes, or what sparks the fleeting smile on their lips, or what it is about the world they find so fascinating, confusing, or beautiful in these moments you have together. One of the most incredible aspects of the piece is the way a single glance or gesture can carry the weight of a thousand unspoken words. This is a credit to the cast and surely Viola’s direction”
Bill Viola says in the magazine Bedeutung, “The primary inspiration for this work came from two sources. First, the palpable feeling of the presence of the dead that I sensed strongly while working in the Church of San Gallo, and had encountered many times on previous visits to Venice, especially when alone. Second, and most direct, is the following poem by the 20th century Senegalese poet and storyteller Birago Diop”
Viola’s work focuses mostly on life, death, and rebirth. His media is primarily video’s which usually include water. Water by its very nature supports all life. When we are born we pass from our mothers water into the world and likewise water is used to symbolize a spiritual rebirth and cleansing of the soul when we are baptized. I believe that water is an important feature in Viola’s work in order to engage his audience and provoke thought and creating their own identity with the piece. In my opinion this was the most fascinating piece to observe. I feel like this piece is showing that there is a very fine line between life and death but it gave me a sense of peace and reassurance because after the subjects “pass” they continue to live on the “other side” and appear to have some renewal.
Drucker,Colin. “Bill Viola’s million dollar video artwork ‘Ocean without a shore.’” www.artandaustralia.com.au. 6 Feb. 2009. <http://blog.artabase.net/?p=187>.
In the book, Janson’s History of Art, and article written about Bill Viola says, “Viola’s elemental symbols of fire and water seem to have destroyed the figure. Or perhaps the two forces have brought about a transformative process, as the body dissolves into a spiritual state, crossing into a higher reality and becoming one with the unseen universal forces. We do not know. The video relentlessly instills a sense of the physical and sensory and then suddenly leaves us in an existential void. In an era when technology and science are extending life and providing hope for cures for deadly diseases, artists such as Bill Viola were returning to the early twentieth-century quest for the spiritual. Others, as we shall now see, bypassed the spiritual and instead were preoccupied only with death.”
In this piece Viola not only uses water but he also uses fire as one of the elements to get his spiritual message across. I think the fire makes this piece pop because as the viewer I expect water to be the main element because of all of his other works. His work is extraordinary and seems very personal to him but can also connect and be very personal to the viewer as well.
Bibliography
“Art in the Surface of the Water ‘The Reflecting Pool’”. Auquizine: Science and the World. 2005-2009 <http://www.brita.net/art_in_the_surface_of_the_water.html>.
Drucker,Colin. “Bill Viola’s million dollar video artwork ‘Ocean without a shore.’” www.artandaustralia.com.au. 6 Feb. 2009. <http://blog.artabase.net/?p=187>.
Ferguson, Howard. “Transfigurations ‘Bill Viola.’” Bedeutung Magazine. 2009.<http://www.bedeutung.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=51:transfigurations&catid=8:issue-3-contents>.
