The Reflecting Pool
Bill Viola
This film is part of Aseman Sabet’s Carte Blanche co-presented with MUTEK.
In this influential work in the history of video art, all movement and change in an otherwise still scene is confined to the reflections on the surface of a pool in the woods. Suspended in time, a man hovers in a frozen, midair leap over the water, as subtle techniques of still-framing and multiple keying join disparate layers of time into a single coherent image. Viola writes that The Reflecting Pool (1977−1979) “concerns the emergence of the individual into the natural world — a kind of baptism.”
In this influential work in the history of video art, all movement and change in an otherwise still scene is confined to the reflections on the surface of a pool in the woods. Suspended in time, a man hovers in a frozen, midair leap over the water, as subtle techniques of still-framing and multiple keying join disparate layers of time into a single coherent image. Viola writes that The Reflecting Pool (1977−1979) “concerns the emergence of the individual into the natural world — a kind of baptism.”
| Director | Bill Viola |
Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
Production
Bill Viola
Bill Viola is a major figure in video art. His works, which have received international recognition, are distinguished by a confluence of allegorical resonance and virtuosic control of technology. Viola explores video’s temporal and optical systems to metaphorically examine modes of perception and cognition, and ultimately chart a symbolic quest for self. His ritualized investigations of visual and acoustic phenomena, illusion and reality, achieve a poetic articulation of visionary transcendence. “Visual poems, allegories in the language of subjective perception,” is how Viola terms his videos.
Light and time are the essential materials with which the artist conducts his metaphysical, at times spiritual search to know and define the self. Rendered plastic, they are used to define a symbolic language of the unconscious and consciousness, microcosm and macrocosm, inner and outer landscapes. Unfolding without spoken language, infused with emblematic transformations and archetypal images, his works suggest subconscious dreams or pre-lingual memories. Viola’s extraordinary use of video technology to “sculpt” with time is one of his few “special effects.” Time-lapse, slow motion, reversals, duration and other temporal interventions acquire metaphorical significance, evoking cycles of day and night, birth, life, death and renewal.
Biographical notes provided by the film production team
Light and time are the essential materials with which the artist conducts his metaphysical, at times spiritual search to know and define the self. Rendered plastic, they are used to define a symbolic language of the unconscious and consciousness, microcosm and macrocosm, inner and outer landscapes. Unfolding without spoken language, infused with emblematic transformations and archetypal images, his works suggest subconscious dreams or pre-lingual memories. Viola’s extraordinary use of video technology to “sculpt” with time is one of his few “special effects.” Time-lapse, slow motion, reversals, duration and other temporal interventions acquire metaphorical significance, evoking cycles of day and night, birth, life, death and renewal.
Biographical notes provided by the film production team
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