Union
Artist
Bill Viola
(American, born 1951)
Date2000
Mediumcolor video diptych on two plasma display monitors, 8 minutes duration
Dimensions102.9 x 127 x 17.8 cm (40 1/2 x 50 x 7 in.)
ClassificationsDigital Art
Credit LinePartial gift from Don and Mary Melville with additional funds from the Sarah C. Garver Fund
Object number2001.101
DescriptionA diptych comprised of two vertical 42 inch flat panel monitors mounted side by side on the wall. The left panel depicts a naked female torso and the right, a naked male torso. While the two figures gesture in unison, the two never actually respond directly to each other. The man and woman are both struggling to reach upward, suggesting both a physical and spiritual union. Viola utilizes traditional sculptural language in his treatment of the human body through his use of lighting to model the figures.Label TextBill Viola, widely recognized as a leading voice in video art, has been a pioneer in the use of the medium since the 1970s. Union belongs to The Passions, a recent series of video works that grew from Viola’s interest in how emotions were represented in the history of art, especially in the devotional paintings of the Medieval and early Renaissance periods. In Union, two flat display screens hang on the wall like framed paintings. They depict a woman and a man struggling in unison to reach upward toward the source of a bright light above them. Although undergoing a shared “emotional wave,” they experience this intensity in isolation, never acknowledging one another. Inspired by images of Christ and the Virgin that explored the humanity of their pain and suffering and their divine triumph over mortality, Viola’s study of suffering and ecstasy, endurance and release, depicts the unexplained feelings of our contemporaries conveyed in startling realism. With video, Viola translates the single moment represented in traditional painting and sculpture into an experience unfolding over time. The couple’s actions, presented in ultra-slow motion (a one minute performance was extended to 8 minutes), make visible details of expression that barely would be noticed in real time and are beyond the realm of conventional representation. Yet the video’s silent presence and the couple’s gestures bear a formal and emotional kinship to the inward gazes and attenuated body language of many of the subjects in the Medieval gallery, including the crucified Christ, the mourning Virgin, and the Agony in the Garden. ProvenanceJames Cohan Gallery, NY
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