Bill Viola. Are you watching?

Bill Viola is considered a pioneer of video art and is internationally established as one of today’s leading artists. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For over 35 years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast. His single channel videotapes have been widely broadcast and presented cinematically. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as pious traditions. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.

Viola has built an evident regime of influence in video, as would be expected from a pioneer of the art form. His pieces build to become total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound. They employ state-of-the-art technologies and are notable by their precision and simplicity. For me, simplicity is king. I appreciate his works mostly because of his utilization of elemental ideas which reflect grand and holy ideas as a god might be assumed to be translated as. The movement and flow he utilizes to transfix his viewers transcends their knowledge of just how involved they are. Souls are entangled.