
Having tutorial last week, here are some artists that Jo suggested me to have a look, I feel shameful that actually she already recommend me to check this artist out in the previos tutorial, I really need to focus more.
This artist focuses on video art, and Jo recommend me to try video. I am unfamiliar with contemporary video arts, and to be honest, I don’t know if I would like it. The video artist I know is mainly Matthew Barney, however, the reason why I wanted to know about his work is simply he was Bjork’s husband, and I am a fan of Bjork. However, I went to cinema to look at Matthew Barney’s work, I can’t help but fall sleep many times. I have read some of his idea, however, excepting the money invested big budget, complicated mix with mythology, history, commese, and delicated schulpture and making up, I am not sure how do I feel about it (probably it has not much connection with my life experience).
I have to say I really love Bjork’s music video, and for me, it is art. On the other hand, it is like illustration, the visual is attach to the music. If simply just talking about “visual arts", in nowaday technology, many movie and tv series have already using lot’s of state in the art visual affect, it will be really challenge for artist to tell a feeling by only using visual effect.
OK, that’s back to the artist that Jo recommended me twice to study, and the reasource is from internet(youtube).
Bill Viola
Dreamer:
this is an arwork composing by 7 series of individual video, and there are 7 people in each video, who have different races, gender, and ages. These seven people have their eye closed, look like in water, peacefully.
At the beginning, I was wondering how they don’t need to breath in the water, are they dead? However, there are some slightly movement from the fingers that prove they are alive. From the hint from title, they are sleeping, and because they can sleep in the water (which is impossible in reality), so it’s a dream.
I guess the way he make it, is to set these people standing, and used big fan to spray on them to make their clothes and hair move like it is not subject to gravity, and later used computer to do the rest of visual affect.
One thing I noticed that our common is the faces in his work and mine are distorted. His “faces" are twisted through the water, and mine is the reflection throught the not flat mirror surface.
OK, here is his interview about this video work:
Bill Viola, The dreamer
His works actually come from his experience of childhood. Seeing beautiful scene while he was drawn.
This scary but unique caused his attraction into water.
few things:
1:He said our acenstor found out their reflection through water, therefor they learned self-identity.
2:While sleeping, body is making is’t reconstrucion, and dream resemble lot’s of things during sleeping. It’s huge inner world, mediated by water.
The floating water in the video represents dream activity in mind, it does not tell you what they dreamabout , but shows that they are dreaming. It is also a series of portrait. Now I see why Jo recommend me to read his work, because my work is also connect to portrait and dream.