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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

What would you ask Bill Viola? Also-BV at National Gallery. You know you want to.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:12 / 20.10.03

Okay, so there's a new Bill Viola show starting 22 October at the NG.

I'd heartily recommend catching it, there'll be 15 works, including 2 new commissions and most of it hasn't been seen in the UK. BV is a wonderful artist, one of the real innovators of video art.

And through a strange pattern of events, occurring in the last hour, I'm going to the press launch tomorrow to review it.

The person sending me suggests that perhaps I ask BV, *who's going to be there*, a couple of questions for the article.

Ulp.

What would *you* ask him?

19:49 / 21.10.03

why use video? (seriously)

20:44 / 21.10.03

ooh, you lucky thing!

At his last show at Anthony D'Offay there was a paragraph explaining that the small works on plasma screens on the ground floor referenced Christian prayer books. At the time I thought this was mainly to do with their portability, but i wonder if there are other links between his choice of video and the traditions of Christian art he appropriates. The sense of awe created by medieval paintings at the time would have been magnified by the fact that the technologies used in its production were cutting-edge at the time, and so unfathomable to a lot of the audience, and the much higher level of belief in the depicted mythologies. Perhaps video occupies a similar position today - it is technologically current, it retains a sheen of mystery and glamour, and we create our gods and heroes through it.

So my question would be to ask him if that theory is anywhere near the mark, if I could formulate it in 20 words or less.

Goodness Gracious Meme

14:46 / 22.10.03

Well, i didn't get time to check this, d'oh.

But actually Lentil(and yeah, i am suitably bouncy, he's one of my favourite artists *evah*) the conversation we had revolved around some of the issues you've discussed...

V.exciting.

The show is wonderful, i'll do a review/adapt my spiel and bung it up here, but I'd heartily recommend it.

It's made me totally revaluate my relationship to medieval art, the way BV takes vastly different influences and concerns (med/renassiance european art, Noh theatrical marks, Japanese C18 sculpture, tibetan buddhism, human passion, energy, emotion, provoking viewer-reponse/blurring the boundaries of the artwork ) adds his own spin and makes beautiful, emotionally powerful profoundly human work.

Rah.

05:50 / 23.10.03

Who were you doing the interview for, BiP?

Goodness Gracious Meme

07:44 / 23.10.03

The review of the show's for these guys...