Thursday, August 10, 2006
Purification
Finally went to see the Bill Viola video art show at the Haunch of Venison gallery in London today. Although I managed to avoid my usual trick of seeing shows on the last day of opening, it does close at the end of August, so go and see it now, before it's too late.Jonny Baker has posted his thoughts on his blog (links are not working with blogger at the moment) - here are some of mine:
1) Viola's work is often immensely popular amongst emerging church types. Perhaps it's the use of video technology, perhaps its the use of life, death and birth narratives. Either way, his work has never quite captured my attention in the way that, say, Gary Hume, Bruce Nauman and Anish Kapoor might. There's nothing wrong with video as a media, but when every piece uses it, it becomes the artist's signature style, which can detract from the work's themes. This brings me to my second point...
2) Slowness. On leaving the gallery, I found myself jetting down the street like an exocet, knocking pensioners, wheelchair users and children aside, and leaving a trail of destruction in my wake from Bond St. to Victoria. Every single piece utilises slow-motion. Of course slowness is very important, we live lives that are too frenetic, we should calm down, etc., etc,...
But bearing in mind that someone somewhere with too much time on their hands has worked out that the average viewer spend a mere 8 seconds in front of a piece of work, there's a big difference between genuine meditative slowness and testing my (admittedly short) patience. My favourite piece would be the one with the woman in arab dress walking towards the camera in the shimmering desert. Closer and closer. In Slo-Mo. Towards the end I found myself shouting: "OH BLOODY HELL, JUST GET ON WITH IT!" Again, the signature style is distracting. By my second hand, EVERY piece was slowed to the exactly the same rate, each piece lasts 50 minutes. Why? Unless the point of the work is to turn the viewer into a tightly wound rubber band, ready to take on the world when you leave the gallery.
3) I did, however, feel inspired to go and find out a bit more about the Tristan and Isolde story, as its a legend that I've heard of a few times before, but know nothing about. The pieces do leave you thinking about questions of narrative versus pure space. The final dyptich on the top floor especially repays the effort of forcing oneself to sit through the entire cycle, as ritual, purification, shame and symbol are offered for consideration.
On the whole, it has to be said that the work is a lot better than many other works that are out there. If you want to go, be sure to put aside a whole afternoon to give it time, but do go see it.
There is also a second part to the show at St. Olave's College near London Bridge.
