Just One Memory: An Attempt at an Autobiography Without Narrative in the Work of Bill Viola
Abstract
The work of Bill Viola, an artist working with moving image, that is not film, is classified as video art, video environments or media installations. In his work there are a lot of autobiographical motifs, although the artists never uses the structures of classic narration, and never tells us a story. Rather he builds and constructs additional meanings on top of a traumatic event from his childhood, when he nearly drowned. The event was both traumatic and fascinating, as during the drowning Viola had an incredible, visual ex- perience. In his work he returns to the drowning very often, but using different means and on different levels of conceptualization. Sometimes the scene from childhood returns in a literal sense, but more often as an attempt to find the “hidden dimension” of the event. An excellent example of working through the autobiographical element is the work entitled The Reflecting Pool, a work that has been accepted into the canon of new media arts. It is this work that forms the basis of Pitrus’ analysis in this article.
Keywords:
Bill Viola, autobiographism, video artReferences
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Authors
Andrzej Pitruskwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Pracownik naukowy Instytutu Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ. Autor książek Gore, seks, ciało, psychoanaliza (1992), Kino kultu (1998), Zrozumieć reklamę (1999), Znaki na sprzedaż (2000). Nam niebo pozwoli. O filmowej i telewizyjnej twórczości Todda Haynesa (2004), Filmowcy i kiniarze (2004), Dotykając lustra. Melodramaty Douglasa Sirka (2006). Znawca problematyki kina niezależnego.
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