video art

I read the article about Bill Viola's work. I was really drawn to his style and the way he makes his viewers hyper-aware of their own bodies and their reactions to a space and an image. He deals with metaphors to convey "the inexpressible states of being" which is basically the feelings one knows they feel but cannot easily convey to others in words. Through video installations Viola throws the viewer into a tranformed space that is enveloped in a certain feeling. Since they viewer feels they they cannot get away from the enviornment, like in the video of the child's birthday party, they are more self concious of their own body and their own emotions. I thought that was really interesting because it makes the audience feel uneasy, like they don't want to continue watching but it also is what draws them into the piece. I like how his work is semi-hard to understand and utilizes sound, motion, text, and to create the space. In The Stopping Mind (1991), the audience is surrounded by four huge screens and a sound system that fills the space with the "whispered, breathless poetry of the artist, then the screeching, metallic noise that accompanies the rapidly shifting images on the four screens." Very cool overall