Bill Viola/Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth


Magical exhibition at the Royal Academy of video installations by Bill Viola.

If you follow this blog you may know I often have issues with video art but the one artist I always seem to like is Bill Viola so I was very excited to go to this show. It took me a couple of rooms to slow to the right pace. You have to give this work your attention and often it can feel like not a lot is happened then you realise that something has subtly changed which can then cause you to sit thought the film again with a different eye and to spot the moment when things change.

Huge thanks to the curators for including running times in the commentaries but I’d also make a plea for some idea of how far through a work you are as I like to see a work from the start and would happily return to a room at the right time to do that.

I preferred the works which were straight videos to the more installation style pieces. I loved an early work of a reflecting pool where ghostly figures appeared in the water and a figure jumping into the pool froze and seemed to melt into the landscape. The Dreamers features seven figures each on their own screen apparently sleeping under water which was mesmeric. Also liked the two large works shown in succession in the last room including the figure lying on a slab which started to float upwards is a shower water which was also moving upwards.

I wasn’t that sure that matching his work with Michelangelo worked. I could see the idea that there were similar themes but these tended to be the themes explored by many artists. It’s always good to see the Royal Academy’s tondo and there were some wonderful drawings but I didn’t think the conversation between the smaller art works and grand videos worked.

My favourite piece was of an older couple, each on a screen made of slate, naked and slowly examining their bodies with a torch. Again I found it mesmeric and I thought this did mirror the Michelangelo drawings as they seemed to be slowing making some of the contoured poses of The Last Judgement. I thought it’s a work Michelangelo would have understood and enjoyed.

Closed  31 March 2019

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