CONTEXTUAL INSPIRATIONS: BILL VIOLA

As my siblings video installation piece develops I have drawn a lot of inspiration from the formal triptych and quadtych work of Bill Viola especially Martyrs (2014) and Nantes (1992) that in his own words creates “total environments that envelop the viewer in image and sound.” (Bill Viola, 2015). His scenes invoke both spiritual and artistic traditions and often deal with life, death and consciousness. I am not quite working within these areas but his work affords its themes and great gravitas and I like the idea of this in my work.

The use of multiple screens really interests me as a way of slipping the confines of one screen story telling and narrative that TV and cinema exhibition restrict me to. I love the very formal often studio shot creation of his work and the very high often cinematic production values. The starkness of the mise-en-scene and sets which are minimal and therefore emphasise only the elements that Viola wants the audience to concern themselves with. The use of lighting and costume/clothing also do not detract from the images or narratives.

Viola's use of sound in his works is also interesting and this is another area I shall be investigating more in my own work. Sometimes used to startle sometimes just to create mood and tone. The works do not involve much editing if any at all and let the images play out and again this is a techniques I may exploit.

The inter-relationships between the images also has greatly inspired me but I feel my work could have more interplay between the images and the screens rather than being independent could be more interdependent on each other and interlinked and respond to each other more in my work. Being brothers this is what the three subjects are and more can be made of this.