Bill Viola MoMa Field Trip
Bill Viola
American, born 1951
Stations 1994
Video / Sound, one synchronizer, five granite slabs, five projectors, and fire projection screens.
Gift of the Bohen Foundation in honor of Richard E. Oldenburg, 1997
Station comprises five video projections, each displaying a nude figure suspended in water, accompanied by a lulling soundtrack of underwater gurgles and murmurs. Floating heads-down, the figures drift slowly out of the image frames. Their reflections in the polished slabs of granite placed at the foot of each screen give the impression of figures swimming in pools of black liquid. The thirteenth-century Persian poet Jahal al-Din Rumi, a favorite author of the artist, proclaimed: “With every moment a world is born and dies. And know that for you, with every moment comes death and renewal” Likewise, in Stations there is no ending or beginning-every instant is a meditation on the continual cycles of life, death and rebirth.
I saw several interesting work in the show. This work is one of them. First of all, the underwater sound was very interesting, because I was able to hear it before seeing the work. It allowed me to wonder what was happening, this is a new experience since there was no visual evidence in the portrayal in the beginning of this artwork. Secondly, in a surprising visual effect, there is an upside down nude figure suspended in water. In a dark room, I tried to understand author’s concept, the shocking visual perception of something not quite ordinary and a feeling of disorientation and curiosity. Lastly, in terms of technology of the visual shot, after taking a long time to try to understand what or how it was done, I realized that the artist had flipped the projection which showed me a different point of view. This was the artwork station that I spent the most time looking over.