Critical Writing Index

Bill Viola's Re-Visions of Mortality

by Michael Nash

High Performance, 1987, v. 10, no. 3, pp. 61-65

Writer Michael Nash and video artist Bill Viola discuss the nature of film and its ability to capture the nature of mortality. Challenging poetry's ability to portray absence within death Nash turns to Viola's work as "wordless visions" into eternity. Viola elaborate on how he utilizes the nuances of perception within his video work to distinguish the boundaries between subject and object, self and other which merge at the point of death.

ITEM 1987.076 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Chott el-DjeridBill Viola

I Do Not Know What I Am LikeBill Viola

Hatsu YumeBill Viola

Stunned by the DrumBill Viola