Editing Bill Viola (section)

== Video art projects ==
[[File:Bill and Jamie (3342782140).jpg|thumb|Bill Viola and Jamie Jewett discussing their technique]]
While many video artists have been quick to adopt new technologies to their medium, Viola relied little on [[Digital media|digital editing]]. Perhaps the most technically challenging part of his work, and that which has benefited most from the advances since his earliest pieces, is his use of extreme [[slow motion]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 15, 2023 |title=Video art by pioneer Bill Viola comes to RAMM |url=https://rammuseum.org.uk/news/video-art-by-pioneer-bill-viola-comes-to-ramm/ |access-date=June 12, 2024 |website=RAMM |language=en-GB}}</ref>

His early works include ''The Reflecting Pool'' (1977–79), inspired by a lake drowning he experienced underwater before being saved by his uncle while on a family vacation that left a mark on his life and work.<ref>[https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/learn/schools/teachers-guides/reflecting-pool-1977-79 The Reflecting Pool, 1977-79|Guggenheim Museum Bilbao]</ref>

=== ''Reverse Television'' ===
{{main|Reverse Television}}
''Reverse Television'' (1983) is a 15-minute montage of people watching video cameras as though they were televisions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eai.org/title.htm?id=701|title=Reverse Television -- Portraits of Viewers (Compilation Tape)|website=Electronic Arts Intermix|accessdate=July 14, 2024}}</ref>

=== ''The Quintet Series'' ===
''The Quintet Series'' (2000-2001) is a set of four separate videos that shows the unfolding expressions of five actors in slow motion so that details of their changing expressions can be detected. The work references European [[Renaissance]] [[Old Masters]] such as [[Hieronymous Bosch]] and [[Dieric Bouts]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/492174|title=The Quintet of Remembrance|publisher=MOMA.org|accessdate=July 14, 2024}}</ref>

=== Collaboration with Nine Inch Nails ===
In 2000, Viola collaborated with the [[industrial rock]] [[Band (rock and pop)|band]] [[Nine Inch Nails]] and its lead singer [[Trent Reznor]] to create a video suite for the band's tour. The [[triptych]] mainly is focused on water imagery and was supposed to be integral with the songs that were played.<ref>Alan Rifkin: [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jan-28-tm-viola04-story.html "Bill Viola"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', January 28, 2007</ref>

=== ''An Ocean Without a Shore'' ===
In 2007, Viola was invited back to the 52nd [[Venice Biennale]] to present an installation called ''An Ocean Without a Shore'', which was named after a quote from [[Ibn ʿArabī]].<ref>{{cite web| first = Jane | last = Carroll | title = Connecting with the Unseen World| url = https://besharamagazine.org/arts-literature/bill-viola/| website = Beshara Magazine| date = 2019| access-date = March 18, 2023}}</ref> The work 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. This main piece seems to creates the effect of appearing as a nearly transparent wall of glass. Viola described the piece in an interview as being "about the fragility of life, like the borderline between life and death is actually not a hard wall; it’s not to be opened with a lock and key, it's actually very fragile, very tenuous."<ref>{{cite web| title = Bill Viola: Venice Biennale 2007| url = https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bill-viola-2333/bill-viola-venice-biennale-2007| website = Tate.org.uk| date = July 29, 2007| access-date = March 18, 2023}}</ref>

=== ''Observance'' ===
''Observance'' (2002), is a work which may be taken partly as a response to the [[September 11 attacks]].<ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Rose |first=Cameron |title=Poetic documentary and visual anthropology: representing intellectual disability on screen
|quote=Bill Viola’s homage to 9/11 Observance (2002) successfully demonstrates the affective power of the moving image. |date=2014 |publisher=[[Monash University]]}}</ref> The installation involves about four or five individuals in a small frame. Although cramped in this small space, they seem to not want to move out of it. One of the youngest individuals in the group comes forward to the front center of the crowd looking at something with an air of solace. In this action, the actions of the other individuals makes more sense. There is something foreboding and tragic in front of them.

=== ''The Tristan Project'' ===
In 2004, Viola embarked on ''The Tristan Project''. At the invitation of opera director [[Peter Sellars]], he created video sequences to be shown as a backdrop to the action on stage during the performance of [[Wagner]]'s opera [[Tristan und Isolde]]. Using his extreme slow motion, Viola's pieces used actors to portray the metaphorical story behind Wagner's story, seeing for example the first act as an extended ritual of purification in which the characters disrobe and wash themselves before finally plunging headlong into water together (in Wagner's story, the two characters maintain the facade of being indifferent to each other (necessary because Isolde is betrothed to Tristan's uncle) before, mistakenly believing they are going to die anyway, and reveal their true feelings). The piece was first performed in Los Angeles at Disney Hall on 3 separate evenings in 2004, one act at a time, then given complete performances at the [[Bastille Opera]] in Paris in April and in November 2005.<ref>Adrian Searle: [https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2006/jun/29/1 Bill Viola: Haunch of Venison/St Olave's College, London], The Guardian, June 29, 2006</ref> The video pieces were later shown in London without Wagner's music in June to September 2006, at the [[Haunch of Venison]] Gallery and St. Olave's School, London. The Tristan project returned, both in music and video, to the [[Disney Hall]] in Los Angeles in April 2007, with further performances at New York City's [[Lincoln Center]] in May 2007 and at the Gergiev Festival in [[Rotterdam]], The Netherlands, in September 2007.<ref name="NPR"/>

=== ''The Night Journey'' ===
In 2005, he began working with [[Tracy Fullerton]] and the Game Innovation Lab at [[University of Southern California|USC]] on the [[art game]], ''The Night Journey'', a project based on the universal story of an individual's mystic journey toward enlightenment.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenightjourney.com|title=Welcome|website=The Night Journey}}</ref> The game has presented at a number of exhibits worldwide as a work in progress.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenightjourney.com/?portfolio=exhibit-list|title=Welcome|website=The Night Journey}}</ref> It was awarded Sublime Experience at [[IndieCade]] 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indiecade.com/games/event/2008/|title=Browse by Events :: Past Selections :: IndieCade - International Festival of Independent Games|website=www.indiecade.com|access-date=January 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120619201613/http://www.indiecade.com/games/event/2008/|archive-date=June 19, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== ''Bodies of Light'' ===
In October 2009, Viola's solo exhibition entitled "Bodies of Light" appeared at the [[James Cohan Gallery]] in New York. Featured in the exhibition was Pneuma (1994), a projection of alternating images evoking the concept of fleeting memories. Also on view were several pieces from the Viola's ongoing "Transfiguration" series, which he evolved from his 2007 installation Ocean Without a Shore.<ref>Baker, Tamzin. "[http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/32956/bill-viola/ Bill Viola]." ''[[Modern Painters (magazine)|Modern Painters]]'', November 2009.</ref>