bill viola in de pont, tilburg

yesterday we went to see the show intimate work of video artist bill viola, in museum de pont, tilburg (netherlands).

a bit to my surprise -since i generally have difficulty immersing myself in video art-i found it really interesting, and i watched most of the works from beginning to end.

my favourites were small saints, acceptance and the last angel.


in small saints we see 6 small screens, each with a different figure. each figure is in a different time frame. each figure starts grey, jaded-photograph-like, behind a thin water screen. then comes slowly forward. the effect of brilliant colour coming to the fore as soon as the figure steps through to `our' side of the screen i found quite beautiful. clearly to me evoking a reference to the way we are born, and then live in a limited time frame, after which we fade away once again in oblivion. (the figures step back, the colour is gone, the figure walks and fades away). and these timeframes do not coincide, although there is some overlap sometimes. (i couldn't find an image which really portrays the work as i describe it.)


acceptance looks similar, in a way, but remains black-and-white. a naked woman slowly slowly and blurredly appears, until she (too) steps slowly through a thin waterscreen. crying, wailing. but especially the way viola uses the water screen to send light around the woman's body is simply wonderful. and then the way in which she (again) steps back and fades away, ever more blurry is really very special. i'm less impressed with the crying and wailing, and other facial expressions but that is simply my prejudice against acting for themes like this.


the last angel is more abstract, and for that reason perhaps my most favourite. because i found it to be a very subtly coloured, multilayered study of water, playing with different aspects of video itself too...really wonderful.

anyway, i advise you to go to any such show of viola's work. here a link to bill viola's website