It is Us Who Invented Time: “Ocean Without a Shore” and “Transfigurations” by Bill Viola
Abstract
The article contains interpretations of two works of the American video artist Bill Viola: Ocean Without a Shore and Transfigurations. In both of them the artist used an unusual technique combining a HD recording, primitive CCTV recordings and his own staging techniques. The common theme is time depicted in many contexts. Seemingly repetitive form became, for Bill Viola, a pretext for reflection on transience, death and reincarnation. Once again, sophisticated technology shows its “human” face, and once again Bill Viola offers the audience the challenge of an erudite puzzle, which under an apparently artless surface hides many fascinating references, in particular to philosophy and religious systems of the East.
Keywords:
Bill Viola, video art, passage of timeReferences
Al-Qasima al-Qusayri, Abu. 1997. Ar-Risala al-Qusayriyya, czyli traktat o sufizmie. Tłum. ks. J. Nosowski. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Akademickie DIALOG.
Google Scholar
Chittick, William C. 1998. The Self-Disclosure of God: Principles of Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Google Scholar
Elmarsafy, Zlad. 2008. Adapting Sufism to Video Art: Bill Viola and the Sacred. W: „Journal of Comparative Poetics”.
Google Scholar
Kaprow, Allan. 2003. The Legacy of Jackson Pollock, W: tenże. Essays on the Blurring of Art and Life. London: University of California Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520930841
Google Scholar
Melzter, David (red.). 1984. Death – An Anthology of Ancient Texts, Songs, Prayers and Stories. San Francisco: North Point Press.
Google Scholar
Viola, Bill. 1995. Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Google Scholar
Viola, Bill. 2008. Transfigurations. Seoul: Kukje Gallery.
Google Scholar
Authors
Andrzej Pitruskwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Medioznawca, profesor nauk humanistycznych w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Interesuje się przede wszystkim sztuką mediów, bada twórczość amerykańskiego artysty wideo Billa Violi. Interesują go również pogranicza game studies i praktyki projektowania gier.
Statistics
Abstract views: 49PDF downloads: 23
License
Copyright (c) 2014 Andrzej Pitrus
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Andrzej Pitrus, An Essay Devoid of a Title, About a Journey Home, Which Home Does Not Exist and Perhaps Never Will Be, or to a Home Which Once Belonged to Entirely Someone Else , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 107 (2019): Journey, (E)migration, Pilgrimage
- Andrzej Pitrus, An Essay Devoid of a Title, About a Country that Turned its Back on its Children , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 105-106 (2019): Cinema and Political Transformation
- Andrzej Pitrus, Young (and Talented) on Animation , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 99 (2017): Tricks, Special Numbers, Attractions
- Andrzej Pitrus, NOTHING , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Andrzej Pitrus, An Essay Devoid of a Title, With Six Footnotes, About Other Three Essays on Keeping Silent: Methodologically Frail , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 104 (2018): Essay, Found Footage, Compilation Film
- Andrzej Pitrus, Almost All the Colours of India , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 93-94 (2016): American Cinema
- Andrzej Pitrus, Mike Leigh for the First Time , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 100 (2017): On Celebrating
- Andrzej Pitrus, For the Celebration and for Everyday: A Visit to the To Sang Fotostudio , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 100 (2017): On Celebrating
- Andrzej Pitrus, Known and Unknown Forms , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 87-88 (2014): Film and Theatre
- Andrzej Pitrus, To Sang Fotostudio/”To Sang Fotostudio”: Coda – Alicja – Sense , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 103 (2018): Young Polish Cinema – Confrontation of Generations
