Bill Viola
2001.2
This video focuses on emotions and how people express them. Five people show different feelings through small changes in their faces and body language. The artwork encourages viewers to look closely at these emotions.
Bill Viola is an American video artist. He uses slow motion to show how emotions change from one moment to the next.
Viola’s artwork is inspired by paintings from the Renaissance and Middle Ages. Viola uses ideas from these older works of art, such as strong lighting and emotional expressions. He combines these ideas with modern video technology.
This video artwork by Bill Viola is silent and lasts about 15 minutes. It shows five people standing together. Their faces and body language change slowly as they react to something the viewer cannot see. The people seem to experience different emotions, including joy, fear, sadness, anger, and compassion.
Viola used a high-speed camera to make the action move very slowly. About one minute of video is stretched into 15 minutes. This allows viewers to notice small changes in expression that would normally be missed. The emotions of the actors appear more detailed and easier to study.
Even though it is a video, the artwork was inspired by older paintings. Viola looked at works by artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Andrea Mantegna, and Dieric Bouts. He used ideas from their paintings, including strong lighting and emotional expressions. These features help make the human figures seem dramatic and powerful.
I am interested in what the old masters didn’t paint, those steps in between.
Bill Viola
Unlike a painting, which captures a single moment, video can show changes over time. Viola filmed The Quintet of Remembrance in one continuous shot without editing. The slow-motion video allows viewers to follow the gradual shift from one emotion to another and notice small changes in expression.
Purchased with funds from the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest), by exchange, and the Art Endowment Fund
2000
Screen: 57 1/4 × 98 inches (145.4 × 248.9 centimeters)
Time Based Media
Modern
