“For the Persian poet Rumi, each human life is analogous to a bowl floating on the surface of an infinite ocean. As it moves along, it is slowly filling with the water around it. That’s a metaphor for the acquisition of knowledge. When the water in the bowl finally reaches the same level as the water outside, there is no longer any need for the container, and it drops away as the inner water merges with the outside water. We call this the moment of death. That analogy returns to me over and over as a metaphor for ourselves.”—Bill Viola
The American artist, Bill Viola’s, most recent show, Frustrated Actions and Futile Gestures, opened last week at BlainISouthern gallery in London. For anyone remotely familiar with Viola’s work, this is an exciting opportunity to see nine new works created between 2012-2013.
For more than 40 years, Bill Viola has transformed our ideas about art and video. He and his partner Kira Perov have truly been at the vanguard, fusing Eastern mystical and spiritual traditions into modern works that take us deeply into emotional and philosophical territory. Sometimes cathartically so. Slow down, spend three and half minutes, and watch his new work Inner Passage. Fill your bowl. –Lane Nevares
Bill Viola, b. 25 January 1951 d. 12 July 2024, RIP