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The 2015 ‘Adelaide Festival of Arts’ is hosting a series of works – seven in total – by the internationally renowned video and sound installation artist Bill Viola. The installations will be located across three venues, representing different aspects of Viola’s poetic and philosophical creative expression.
The Art Gallery of South Australia will present two of Viola’s earlier video/sound installations, The Crossing (1996) and The Messenger (1996), and will also premiere Walking on the Edge and The Encounter, pieces from his 2012 Mirage series. This compelling selection of works that include Viola’s signature images of fire, water, mirages and vast landscapes, explore some of the great themes of human existence: birth, death, the transience of life, and transcendence.
The historic Queen’s Theatre will be home to Fire Woman (2005) and Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall) (2005). Filling this large space with the sounds of a deluge and roaring flames, the images of these two works shown one after the other represent the opposites of the elements as they consume the spirit of human passion. The installations are part of The Tristan Project – a series created for a production of Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde.
In St Peter’s Cathedral’s Lady Chapel, Three Women (2008) is presented in an intimate setting, with the beautiful stained glass windows of the cathedral as a backdrop. In this powerful piece, an invisible wall of water becomes the threshold for movement from one life to the next. Three Women depicts the process of transformation and is part of the Transfigurations series.
Described as the Rembrandt of the video age, Bill Viola’s work has at its centre the depiction of human emotions and actions extended by slow motion for close observation, so that viewers experience the work directly and in their own personal way.
Viola paints with video; his full control of the medium enables him to create images that are spectacular and intimate, spiritual and profound, allowing for both intense contemplation and strong emotional connection.
Kira Perov – Executive Director of his studio – will accompany Viola to Adelaide for these exhibitions. The two will be in conversation with festival Artistic Director David Sefton for a special ticketed event at Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia on Saturday 28 February at 2.30pm.
Adelaide Festival of Arts
27 February to 15 March
www.adelaidefestival.com.au
See the website for full exhibition details
The Encounter, 2012, color high-definition video on plasma display mounted on wall, 92.5 x 155.5 x 12.7cm, 19:19 minutes
Performers: Genevieve Anderson, Joan Chodorow
Photograph: Kira Perov. Courtesy the artist
