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September 21, 2006
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House
Having got a chance to read excerpts of Bill Viola's works, I was drawn to read more about his works as one of the pioneers' in the fields of video art.Though not completely through with the book -Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House, I have come to realise that, Bill Viola was instrumental in using video like an artist's paint brush and that this was a revolution that extended his creative outputs to beyond the cloistered world of art.
In his works he takes various different scapes to provoke a direct experience of the world. His work brought out a sublime hint of spirituality and yet on the surface he is able to create works that are drawn from his experiences in daily life. His well defined notebooks that he filled with his ideas clearly bring out his desire to be expressive not only through visual forms but also in the written form that have give much insight about the values that he derives from life, his works and so on, to have a profound and continued impact on his future works.
His works also highlight the fact that he has a deep understanding of his viewer's neuro-physiological perception that helps him draw his viewer to be a part of the installation that he is here to view.
Of the few works that I read from the book, a distinct pattern that one can draw is that all of his works are entwined when it comes to the composition of the piece of art and each of the work of art is somehow difficult to differentiate due to its overlapping content with other pieces that he has created. And, yet each piece is unique in its creation. Another aspect of his work is related to his focus on universal human experiences - pain, joy, birth, death, violence and the total beauty of capturing human emotion. His work also involved aimals and their reactions to particular situations. There is a frequent mention of spiritual traditions like Zen, Buddhism, Sufism and so on, where he is still able to easily draw the viewer into his works like in any other comtemporary art.
To define what I like best among all of his works would be wrong since I have not got a chance to view his works apart from the prints available, but yes the book does give a small prelude into the vastness that his works constitute and awakens a desire to be a very part of his works as a viewer who gets a chance to be a part of the very installation.
Posted by Riddhima Shelat at September 21, 2006 04:28 AM