BILL VIOLA
BY AMELIA GROOM
Pioneering video artist Bill Viola is in Sydney this week, presenting three major video installations across two venues. The works are taken from his major piece, The Tristan Project, a four-hour long video that he created for a new production of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde, directed by Peter Sellars.
Viola, who is based in California, also currently has two video works on show at the MCA, as part of the current Southern Exposure: Works from the Collection of the San Diego MCA exhibition, so it’s a fantastic time for Sydneysiders to see his work.
For over 35 years, Viola has been instrumental in the establishment of video media as a vital form of contemporary art. His videotapes, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, architectural video installations, and works for television have all helped expand the scope of video art in terms of reach, content and technological possibility.
The Fall into Paradise is installed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales; and from 6.30-10.30 in the evenings, St Saviour’s Church in Redfern is open for viewing the other two, Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall).
This house of worship is a fitting venue for Viola’s eerie, ethereal and dreamlike soundtracks and moving images, which often have religious/spiritual undertones.
While informed by the conventions of Western art – especially the Medieval and Renaissance periods ‘ the artist’s practice has also long drawn on spiritual traditions he has been involved with like Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian Mysticism.
His works are inspired by epic stories (in this case, that of the love of Tristan and Isolde), and focus on universal human experiences like birth, death, and the unfolding of consciousness.
With his wife and long-time creative collaborator, Australian-born Kira Perov, Viola has recorded mirages in the Sahara desert, studied animal consciousness at the San Diego Zoo, made a photographic study of Native American rock art sites, travelled the American Southwest recording nocturnal desert landscapes with special cameras, and been to Dharamsala, India to record a prayer blessing with the Dalai Lama.
Viola and Perov are in Sydney at the invitation of Kaldor Art Projects, a charitable organisation that has presented major new works by leading international contemporary artists to the Australian public free of charge, for nearly four decades.
John Kaldor invited Christo and Jeanne-Claude to wrap part of Sydney’s coastline in 1969, and since then KAP’s aim has been to operate beyond the gallery, often with site-specific works. Bill Viola at St Savour’s church is KAP’s latest undertaking, and it’s a unique opportunity to experience the artist’s fascinating work.
Bill Viola (video installations from The Tristan Project)
Until July 27 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Road, The Domain, 10am-5pm, 7 days, Wednesdays until 9pm.
Until May 17 at St Saviour’s Church, 117 Young Street, Redfern, 6.30pm-10.30pm nightly. Both exhibitions are free.
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
