Source 3 : Bill Viola and Joseph Cornell

Bill Viola (born January 25, 1951) is a contemporary video artist. He is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects of consciousness

BILL VIOLA - Ocean Without a Shore, 2007 3-channel High Definition Video/Sound Installation Production stills Photo: Kira Perov

In 2007, Viola was invited back to the 52nd Venice Biennale to present an installation called "Ocean without a Shore," which was seen by over 60,000 viewers throughout its duration. In this piece, exposed in the little but perfectly fitted Church of San Gallo, Viola is exploring life and death. The experiment consists of people standing in the foreground with nothing but black behind them. Each of them seem to produce gallons of water from themselves as if they were waterfalls. The water comes gushing out of their bodies as if they are being reborn. The very last individual is an elderly man who actually glows a supernatural green while dozens of gallons of water erupts from his body. There are 2 individuals in the middle of the piece who only seem to trickle water, while all the others produce a waterfall of water (Sal 2008). Viola says that this piece is about how the dead are undead. That once they get through the water they are conscious again.

I was focusing on Bill Viola’s way of using water and how he metaphor the meaning of water. For my body of work, Leaving with wound (2011), water was using as meaning of healing.

There is one more artist who influenced my work, Leaving with wound.  Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American artist and sculptor, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of Assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmmaker.

Untitled (Penny Arcade Portrait of Lauren Bacall) (1945-46) Construction, 20 1/2 x 16 x 3 1/2 in

By collecting and carefully juxtaposing found objects in small, glass-front boxes, Cornell created visual poems in which surface, form, texture, and light play together. Using things we can see, Cornell made boxes about things we cannot see: ideas, memories, fantasies, and dreams.

Untitled (Medici Princess) (c. 1948), Construction, 17 5/8 x 11 1/8 x 4 3/8 in

From Bill Viola to Joseph Cornell My body of work, Leaving with wound has been influenced from their style of work. Bill Viola’s meaning of water, as healing and Joseph Cornell’s collecting of personal memories, especially the fact that some of Joseph Cornell’s work was for his lovers intrigued me and let me think about my personal memories as well, as a result I construct an experimental video installation work, Leaving with wound.