ART CITIES:Montreal-Bill Viola
Bill Viola, in one of the pioneering figures of a generation of artists in the ‘70s employing video art and sound technologies. Known for his room-sized installations that envelop viewers with sound and feature multiple screens of moving images, Viola created sublimely romantic imagery in the tradition of painting but with radically new digital media.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: DHC/ART Foundation Archive
Bill Violas solo exhibition “Inverted Birth” marks the 10th Anniversary of DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art. The presentation brings together four flat panel video works, “The Return” (2007), “Ancestors” (2012), “Walking on the Edge” (2012), and “The Encounter” (2012), as well as the projection work “Ascension” (2000). Making its Canadian debut is his most recent major installation, “Inverted Birth” (2014), this monumental projection depicts the five stages of awakening through a series of violent transformations, exploring the very nature of our existence: life, death, birth, and rebirth. The work begins with a man standing in darkness, coated in black fluid. Gradually, the fluid begins to flow in reverse and rises upward with increasing velocity. The fluids change from black to red to white, ultimately becoming clear like water. A soft mist covers the man for the final stage of awakening. The essential elements of human life: earth, blood, milk, water and air, and the passage from birth to death, here are inverted when darkness is transformed into light. “The Return” is a methodical construction of the approach of an individual towards an unseen goal, which assumes metaphorical significance. Viola moves toward the camera/viewer, pausing every few steps to ring a bell, at which point he is momentarily thrust back to his starting place, and then advanced again. Finally reaching his destination, he is taken through all of the previous stages in a single instant and returned to the source of his journey. In “Ancestors”, a mother and son make a journey on foot across the desert in the heat of summer. In the course of traversing this inhospitable landscape, a new consciousness unfolds when they become swallowed by a dust storm and emerge finding solace in one another. In “Walking on the Edge” two men, tiny figures in the distance. Blurred because of the heat, almost liquefied, they could be a mirage, or the reflection of each other. They start walking towards us and as they get nearer, they also grow closer to each other. They look at each other, there is a form of exchange, but then they walk away, almost indifferent, they pass each other and the distance between them grows again. The desert around them, the silence, the absence of other human beings in this isolated and immense space, reinforces the impression of loneliness and failure: failed encounter, missed opportunity, inability to create a connection. “The Encounter” is more cyclical and intimate, featuring two women walking parallel across the desert toward the viewer. An older and a younger woman meet, their gait, forms and colouring similar enough to establish a familial bond. They stop and turn to face each other. The elder woman passes something to the younger, a sacred gift in the wilderness, before they turn and retrace the path of the other, heading toward their destination/point of origin. “Ascension” opens with a dark field of water, punctuated by a shaft of cutting sunlight. This calm expanse is suddenly disturbed by the dramatic plunging of a fully clothed man. With his arms raised laterally like those of Christ on the cross, the diver first floats toward the surface and then descends out of the field of vision. The dramatic sounds, turbulent waters, and swarm of air bubbles give way to the original deep-blue void, the sparkling sunlight again infusing the water with an otherworldly glow. Bill Viola extended the entire sequence, which was only a few seconds in real time, into 10 minutes of extreme duration. With such a contradictory play between title and image, Viola sets up a series of dualities. “Why”, he asks, “do we believe that heaven is above and hell below?” Like the man in this video, the viewer is also immersed in the artist’s visual field. For Viola, water is both a vehicle and a site for altered consciousness and spiritual reawakening.
Info: DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art, 451-465, Saint-Jean Street, Montreal, Duration: 25/10/17-11/3/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Fri 12:00-19:00, Sat-Sun 11:00-18:00, https://dhc-art.org
