Bill Viola is a trailblazer in the realm of video art. Since 1970 he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances and pieces for television. HIs work centers mostly around exploring the 'spiritual and perceptual side of human experience'. Some of his works include Hatsu Yume (First Dream), The Passing, and installations Room for St. John of the Cross, The Messenger and The Quintet of the Astonished, recently shown at the National Gallery, London in "Encounters, New Art from Old". But probably his most famous work is the Five Angels for the Millenium.
'All I knew was that I wanted to film a man plunging into water, sinking down, below, out of frame - drowning. 'A year or so later, going through this old footage, I came across five shots of this figure and started working with them - intuitively and without a conscious plan. I became completely absorbed by this man sinking in water, and by the sonic and physical environment I had in mind for the piece.
'When I showed the finished work to Kira [Perov], my partner, she pointed out something I had not realised until that moment: this was not a film of a drowning man. Somehow, I had unconsciously run time backwards in the five films, so all but one of the figures rush upwards and out of the water. I had inadvertently created images of ascension, from death to birth.' Bill Viola, 3 June 2003
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