Rumour has it that video artist extraordinaire Bill Viola will be part of a three-person exhibition coming to the Royal Ontario Museum in June 2009!
Bill Viola, Five Angels for the Millennium [detail] Departing Angel, 2001. Video/sound installation. Image: Kira Perov/tokyoartbeat.com
The exhibition will, apparently, be mounted by the ICC at the ROM in response to the upcoming exhibition of sixteen of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We hear that the curator has chosen one Christian artist, one Jewish artist and one Muslim artist for the show.
Viola is renowned for his powerful, slow motion video works that often re-create Biblical scenes as depicted in Renaissance paintings. They are grand, powerful and almost unbelievably well-produced.
In addition to representing the U.S. at the Venice Biennale in 1995, Viola’s work has been exhibited at the world’s top galleries: the National Gallery, London, Guggenheim Berlin, Guggenheim New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Getty Los Angeles, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Bill Viola, The Raft, 2004. Colour High-Definition video projection on wall.
Collection: The Ella Fontanals Cisneros Collection, Miami
Image: Kira Perov/tokyoartbeat.com
More details coming soon, including an interview with one of the artists…stay tuned!
Andrea Carson writes on contemporary art, architecture and design...
11 comments ↓
an absolute bore! as Dan Graham has aptly described Viola’s work: “corporate zen buddhism”
Seconded.
ditto
Duuuuuuuuuuuudes. If it had a nu-metal guitar soundtrack, would you like it better?
Just sayin’ there’s a place for the heavy non-ironic turn.
And while I haven’t seen Viola’s latest work, the last stuff I did see I quite enjoyed.
Is it the lapsed Catholic in me? Probably more so than my lapsed corporate officeness, or my lapsed/nonexistent Zen Buddhism. Also my lapsed intro video student matters too.
Also, it’s true that if some new person on the scene was making this stuff, it would be too much–it would be a ripoff of Bill Viola. But this is Bill Viola! So. Yeah. I get that you don’t like it, but some people still do.
Seconded! Thanks Leah!
Upon further reflection, I of course realize and want to acknowledge that you guys can have valid objections to Viola’s work and still like serious work in general. It doesn’t have to be a pro-irony/anti-irony thing at all.
I basically just have liked what I’ve seen.
I think anyone could remake his 1970s stuff today with commonplace technology, but at the time it was pretty groundbreaking. I also really enjoyed those people-plunging-into-water installations. Maybe overly earnest to some, or just not working, but it worked for me.
I’m with Leah and Andrea. I saw Going Forth By Day in Berlin and New York a few years ago, and found it to be a thrilling experience both times. Beautifully shot, smartly paced, absorbing and, yes, even moving.
Of course, anyone is free to like or not like whatever they choose, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the power of art, and to think about what makes a particular artwork strong, or not. I keep saying that art is serious. (Personally, I think Viola’s best work taps in to something pretty great)
Not a bore, Hirst:
http://www.nothingthing.com
; )
i’m still not convinced. oh the technology! the pacing! the references! I’d rather watch the canadian tire log on a fire dvd.
Watching a DVD from Canadian Tire of a log burning, with the log renewing itself whenever you hit ‘back to start’, sounds like a very corporate Zen Buddhist way to spend some time!
Leave a Comment