| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 藝術研究所 === 102 === This study aimed to explore the body of works created by contemporary video artist Bill Viola (B.1951-). Bill Viola has been creating works for over four decades now. This study focuses on how he thinks on the body-image in his works while medias in four decades went through rapid changes.
In this study, Bill Violas’ video works of four decades will be categorized in four phases, so to distinct the changes and characteristic of each phases. The four phases are: i) Experimental phase, ii) Oriental exploration phase, iii) Classical source exploration phase, v)Transfiguration phase.
The language of the body-image in Viola’s work, on one hand affected by oriental spirit, emphasizing the expression of inner soul. On the other hand, Viola’s works went through some changes due to the evolution of technologies, he fully expressed his anti-machine spirit in the age when electronic and mechanical devices were highly developed, piercing the inaccessible and inmost part of us, subliminal and evoke our spirits.
Gradually, Viola went from material to spirituality. He always wanted to integrate the inner world and the outside world through his study on figure. First, he started from sound—the frequency of existence—sound does not have a figure, but through synesthesia, sound would link with the body. Since Viola’s work integrated sound, space and image, the viewers sees using their bodies.
Yet, Viola tried to transform the body in the image into a medium. Using water as an interface, his works showed the body vanishing and appearing in water. For Viola, this is not a return to figurative aspects, but was as if a reborn to the initial self.
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