Bill Viola was born on 25th January 1951 in New York in the United States. He studied at Syracuse University's College of the Visual and Performing Arts in the Experimental Studios learning video, electronic music and photography. In the 1960s Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik and a few others had just about started investigating the possibilities of video art. This, however, was still in its formative years in 1973 at the time that Viola graduated. He worked in Florence and New York in conjunction with contemporaries like Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Woody Vasulka. This aided in convincing him that his primary focus could be video. He exhibited in Australia at the La Trobe University in Melbourne in 1977, where he met Kira Perov, the cultural art director. He married her at a later stage. They joined together to form a working partnership and traveled to Japan together, where they were introduced to Zen Buddhism. On their return, Viola received an offer to teach at the California Institute of Arts. Following this, the couple set up home in California. His artistic style was pioneering. He was a video artist focusing on total-environment. He used tape, broadcast and installation. His style was extreme slow motion using emoting actors in hyper real clarity with referencing religious art and spiritualism. In his work... show more

Bill Viola was born on 25th January 1951 in New York in the United States. He studied at Syracuse University's College of the Visual and Performing Arts in the Experimental Studios learning video, electronic music and photography. In the 1960s Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik and a few others had just about started investigating the possibilities of video art. This, however, was still in its formative years in 1973 at the time that Viola graduated. He worked in Florence and New York in conjunction with contemporaries like Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman and Woody Vasulka. This aided in convincing him that his primary focus could be video. He exhibited in Australia at the La Trobe University in Melbourne in 1977, where he met Kira Perov, the cultural art director. He married her at a later stage. They joined together to form a working partnership and traveled to Japan together, where they were introduced to Zen Buddhism. On their return, Viola received an offer to teach at the California Institute of Arts. Following this, the couple set up home in California. His artistic style was pioneering. He was a video artist focusing on total-environment. He used tape, broadcast and installation. His style was extreme slow motion using emoting actors in hyper real clarity with referencing religious art and spiritualism. In his work Viola explores the consciousness phenomena, sensitive emotional states, and the yearning for spiritual transcendence with an completely emotive and humanistic approach. Unlike many of his associates, Viola is uninterested in formal experiments by himself. Nonetheless, he has hastily implemented new technology where it could aid in melting barriers between the medium of communication and the audience. His characteristic use of extreme slow motion was first displayed in his production The Greeting in 1995. His ambitious production Going Forth By Day in 2002 however, enclosed the spectator in a high definition, digital fresco. His exhibition at the London’s National Gallery where he displayed The Passions collection produced in 2003, was the first exhibition by a contemporary artist at this venue. The Passions collection was a mix of large rear projection screens with small LCD panels. His long standing interest in religious mysticism was reflected in this work as it referenced Renaissance altarpieces and devotional images. The artist’s installations are intended to be meditative ‘total environments’, which call for the viewer to spend time ‘perceiving rather than seeing’ before getting to the revelation of its meaning. This has roused allegations of New Age pretention in some parts. Nevertheless, the last 30 years of his worked has established him as a popular artist and is available to audiences all over the world. No doubt this helps create a foundation for video art as an enduring and credible medium of art. Bill Viola’s works of art include: Information produced in 1973; The Space Between the Teeth produced in 1976; Nantes Triptych produced in 1992; The Crossing produced in 1996; The Quintet of Remembrance produced in 2000; Surrender produced in 2001; Five Angels for the Millennium 2001.
show less