This exhibition has passed
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Bill ViolaWater
Life’s innermost mysteries are at the core of Bill Viola’s art. He was born in New York in 1951, and has for nearly forty years been developing and expanding video as an art form. His curiosity and experimental urge has led him to work with the very latest technology. But in his art technology has always remained a tool and never an aim in itself.
A desire to explore what defies description – experiences beyond the reach of words, intellect or emotions – permeate the six works in this exhibition. They were created between 1977 and 2008 and in all of them water is present.
Water and movement are preconditions for watercolour art and for life itself. The history of painting has been one of Bill Viola’s main sources of inspiration, alongside his studies of spiritual traditions such as Sufism, Christian mysticism and Zen Buddhism.
The exhibition invites viewers to experience a series of living paintings in which we find ourselves enveloped in moving images and sound. Our sense of time is both reinforced and questioned – the works flow across the themes of birth, life and death but lack clear endings or firm conclusions.
In the opinion of Bill Viola, art museums are among the few public spaces remaining to us today where reflection and consideration are allowed free play.
Pictures from the exhibition
