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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520930841
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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.
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