i called in to the new haunch of venison gallery which is amazing – at least i assume it's their new gallery or maybe they've just used the space for this exhibition? it's the old museum of mankind and has a lot of space in rooms throughout. the current exhibition mythologies explores stories we tell about the world in order to understand it. damien hirst has a piece in there along with a stack of other artists but i really went along because i noticed bill viola had a couple of pieces in it. if you've not come across his work he is a video installation artist whose work explores spritual themes. i have seen a load of his work in london over the years – angels of the millenium, messenger, a solo exhibition with haunch of venison, passions…
one of the pieces is called incarnation and has two naked figures – seemingly referencing adam and eve, but maybe just humanity – who are in grey blurred in the distance. they slowly walk towards the scren and reach out a hand to go through a sheet of water. as they do so they turn from grey to colour, look around in wonder before eventually returning. the other piece small saints has 6 small screens, much like icons. on each a figure makes a similar journey from the gloom through a wall of water into the light and colour. the figures stand prayerfully or reflective before turning and returning. the sequences probably take around 10 minutes.
i read up in the catalogue what bill vioa had to say about them and he talks about transfigurations, or awakenings where a person undergoes a total transformation, the world comes alive, is seen in new ways. it's an inner transformation that is being referenced.
i was transfixed by these pieces. they would make perfect imagery for baptism passing from death to life or light to darkness. i don't think for a moment that that is what viola had in mind but it's so striking – in fact a lot of his pieces would fit perfectly with baptism. he is definitely interested in the threshold of change between life and death, this world and the next.
it's on until 25 april – go if you get the chance.
i’ve regularly used viola’s water/fire installation for baptisms.
baptists like the full immersion, anglicans can still point to sprinkling 🙂
steve
If you can make it to this exhibition, then do — it’s fascinating, although, inevitably given the open-ended subject, eclectic. If you particularly want to see the Bill Viola pieces, they’re on the first floor, right at the back.
I was particularly struck by “skeletons” of Sylvester and Tweety Pie. The quotation that accompanied them, attributed to Jorge Luis Borges, warrants repeating in full:
“… the animals are divided into: (a) belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from a long way off look like flies…”