Bill Viola Movies

  • 2014
    Martyrs: Air

    Martyrs: Air

    Martyrs: Air

    02014HD

    Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) consists of four plasma screens, each showing a single figure who is progressively overwhelmed by the onslaught of...

    Martyrs: Air
  • 2008
    The Innocents

    The Innocents

    The Innocents

    02008HD

    Part of Bill Viola’s Transfiguration series, The Innocents explores the presence of the dead in the world of the living. The video documents a...

    The Innocents
  • 1973
    Information

    Information

    Information

    61973HD

    Information is an exercise in technological reflexivity, an early investigation of the material presence of the electronic medium. From a technical...

    Information
  • 1992
    Slowly Turning Narrative

    Slowly Turning Narrative

    Slowly Turning Narrative

    01992HD

    Slowly Turning Narrative includes two projections on a large central rotating screen. One presents images of virtually everything that constitutes...

    Slowly Turning Narrative
  • 1986
    Sodium Vapor

    Sodium Vapor

    Sodium Vapor

    01986HD

    Writes Viola: "Sodium Vapor was recorded over a period of several weeks in the hours between one and five in the morning on the streets of an...

    Sodium Vapor
  • 1976
    Songs of Innocence

    Songs of Innocence

    Songs of Innocence

    01976HD

    Songs of Innocence, which directly references the visionary Romanticism of William Blake, is haunted with symbolic transformations, as shifting light...

    Songs of Innocence
  • 1989
    Angel's Gate

    Angel's Gate

    Angel's Gate

    61989HD

    Writes Viola: "A succession of individual images focusing on mortality, decay and disintegration, are delineated by long, slow fades to black. The...

    Angel's Gate
  • 2005
    Fire Woman

    Fire Woman

    Fire Woman

    82005HD

    2005. Video/sound installation. Performer: Robin Bonaccorsi.

    Fire Woman
  • 2012
    The Encounter

    The Encounter

    The Encounter

    02012HD

    The Encounter
  • 2005
    Basin of Tears

    Basin of Tears

    Basin of Tears

    02005HD

    In Basin of Tears, two videos are projected side by side on two adjacent screens mounted to the wall. This video diptych creates an incredible...

    Basin of Tears
  • 2003
    Emergence

    Emergence

    Emergence

    52003HD

    Emergence
  • 1980
    Vegetable Memory

    Vegetable Memory

    Vegetable Memory

    01980HD

    The title of Vegetable Memory derives from the writings of Jalaludin Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet. Evolving as what Viola terms a "kind of...

    Vegetable Memory
  • 2014
    Martyrs: Earth

    Martyrs: Earth

    Martyrs: Earth

    02014HD

    Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) consists of four plasma screens, each showing a single figure who is progressively overwhelmed by the onslaught of...

    Martyrs: Earth
  • 2000
    Anima

    Anima

    Anima

    02000HD

    Anima, which means “soul” in Latin and is the root of the word animation, is from a series of works inspired by Renaissance paintings of...

    Anima
  • 2001
    Four Hands

    Four Hands

    Four Hands

    02001HD

    The hands of three generations are seen in this work – a young boy, father, mother and grandmother. Slowly and deliberately, the four pairs of...

    Four Hands
  • 1976
    Four Songs

    Four Songs

    Four Songs

    01976HD

    In terming these tapes "songs," Viola references the relation of his work to musical structures and to the poetics of Romanticism. 4 tapes (Junkyard...

    Four Songs
  • 1996
    The Crossing

    The Crossing

    The Crossing

    01996HD

    In this work's left panel, The Crossing (1996), a walking male figure is consumed by fire on a 27-foot vertical plasma screen projection while in the...

    The Crossing
  • 2005
    Ablutions

    Ablutions

    Ablutions

    02005HD

    This diptych opens with the image of two parallel streams of falling water. A female torso moves into the background of the left screen while a male...

    Ablutions
  • 1992
    Heaven and Earth

    Heaven and Earth

    Heaven and Earth

    01992HD

    Continuously running video installation: in a small alcove, a wood column extends from the floor and ceiling, with a gap in the center formed by two...

    Heaven and Earth
  • 1976
    Junkyard Levitation

    Junkyard Levitation

    Junkyard Levitation

    01976HD

    Junkyard Levitation is a visual pun on the concept of "mind over matter," as a man attempts to levitate while lying prone in a junkyard. Writes...

    Junkyard Levitation