Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called public art, land art or intervention art; however, the boundaries between these terms overlap.
Bill Viola is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects of consciousness. Viola grew up in Queens, New York. On vacation in the mountains with his family, he nearly drowned in a lake, an experience he describes as “… the most beautiful world I’ve ever seen in my life” and “without fear,” and “peaceful”.
Tristan's Ascension describes the ascent of the soul in the space after death as it is awakened and drawn up in a backwards flowing waterfall. The body of a man is seen lying on a stone slab in an empty concrete room. Small drips of water become visible as they leave the ground and fall upward into space. What starts as a light rain soon becomes a roaring deluge, and the cascading water jostles the man's limp body and soon brings him to life. His arms move of their own accord and his torso arches upward amidst the churning water. Finally, his entire body rises off the slab and is drawn up with the rushing water, disappearing above. The torrent of water gradually subsides and the drips decrease until only the empty slab remains, glistening on the wet ground. The image sequence is projected onto a tall, vertically oriented screen mounted on the wall. A specially configured 4.1 surround sound system arrays the sound in the vertical dimension of the space.
Bill Viola is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects of consciousness. Viola grew up in Queens, New York. On vacation in the mountains with his family, he nearly drowned in a lake, an experience he describes as “… the most beautiful world I’ve ever seen in my life” and “without fear,” and “peaceful”.
Tristan's Ascension describes the ascent of the soul in the space after death as it is awakened and drawn up in a backwards flowing waterfall. The body of a man is seen lying on a stone slab in an empty concrete room. Small drips of water become visible as they leave the ground and fall upward into space. What starts as a light rain soon becomes a roaring deluge, and the cascading water jostles the man's limp body and soon brings him to life. His arms move of their own accord and his torso arches upward amidst the churning water. Finally, his entire body rises off the slab and is drawn up with the rushing water, disappearing above. The torrent of water gradually subsides and the drips decrease until only the empty slab remains, glistening on the wet ground. The image sequence is projected onto a tall, vertically oriented screen mounted on the wall. A specially configured 4.1 surround sound system arrays the sound in the vertical dimension of the space.
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'Twilight is the most important moment of the day because that is the time when nature herself is unstable. Twilight is so beautiful because the sun is going down and it’s getting darker. The sun has set but it’s still light out. the daytime world made up of the creatures that live in the day, the dogs, birds, squirrels, trees, people (they live in both day and night) and plants all go to sleep. While they’re preparing to go to sleep, the animals and the living beings from the night are waking up. This doesn’t happen in a neat little perfect line, it’s actually a messy transition where nature is still showing us light from the day but the night has not fully arrived. The two are kind of touching each other and some animals from the night time are coexisting with animals from the daytime; it’s a very special moment. The beauty of it is the instability. This also occurs at sunrise too. So I’m interested in moments and places of instability: thresholds of transition in between two things. For example, my favourite times of year are springtime and the autumn. in the springtime, the flowers try to come up but sometimes it’s still snowing. in the autumn, you have the trees holding on to their life, some of them are loosing their leaves and some are green. Those are the kind of moments I like, where things are not clear and you can’t decide between this and that. The age of computers is a very dangerous time for us because computers work on ‘yes or no’, ‘1 or 0′. There’s no maybe, perhaps or both, it’s only yes or no. I think this is affecting our consciousness, because nature doesn’t work that way. Nature works on maybe and poetry comes from maybe, not from a hard fixed order. Those kinds of transitions and thresholds are very very important in my work.
'The main characteristics of my work here are light, water and time. The images concern people who are approaching from a distant place, a dark shadowy place. This world that has no colour and has very little detail or visibility. as they approach us they become more and more clear, present and individual. They become more individualized and then at a certain point they cross a threshold, an invisible threshold. This threshold is made up of water, which is pouring from above, across the image. The water cannot be seen because it’s a special kind of water system, which has no disturbance, except at the bottom. As they cross the threshold of water, they also meet a second surface made of light. When they pass through this threshold, they disturb the water and it sprays and falls everywhere. At that moment they become materialized, they become colour, detail and substance. the body becomes present and it’s like a kind of birth as they arrive in our space on this side of the water. The sound gives us the impression that they’re in the room, because sound occupies space. They arrive with light and with sound. the sound touches us in the room, becoming part of the room we’re standing in. then they spend a short amount of time with us, recovering and gathering their senses from this very strong transition. They then realize they have to go back, their time is up. They must turn their backs on us and walk back through the threshold of water and light, back into the world of shadows. That to me is the ultimate description of human existence.'
'The main characteristics of my work here are light, water and time. The images concern people who are approaching from a distant place, a dark shadowy place. This world that has no colour and has very little detail or visibility. as they approach us they become more and more clear, present and individual. They become more individualized and then at a certain point they cross a threshold, an invisible threshold. This threshold is made up of water, which is pouring from above, across the image. The water cannot be seen because it’s a special kind of water system, which has no disturbance, except at the bottom. As they cross the threshold of water, they also meet a second surface made of light. When they pass through this threshold, they disturb the water and it sprays and falls everywhere. At that moment they become materialized, they become colour, detail and substance. the body becomes present and it’s like a kind of birth as they arrive in our space on this side of the water. The sound gives us the impression that they’re in the room, because sound occupies space. They arrive with light and with sound. the sound touches us in the room, becoming part of the room we’re standing in. then they spend a short amount of time with us, recovering and gathering their senses from this very strong transition. They then realize they have to go back, their time is up. They must turn their backs on us and walk back through the threshold of water and light, back into the world of shadows. That to me is the ultimate description of human existence.'