Bill Viola is famous for his special kind of art based on visualizing with the help of electronic devices. We live in the era of modern technologies, and Viola uses the advantages of these technologies to keep the moment of human life in all details. We are going to describe the process of art creation by way of the example of his project, The Greeting.
Factually, Viola’s creation of The Greeting does not change from his usual work. He creates an idea, then he describes all details on the paper, and further on, he visualizes his idea and shoots it with the camera. There are two very important factors of his work, namely videotape and video installation. He connects videotape with the moment of time and image while video installation is referred to the importance of time and space. Nevertheless, there are some particular things in the creation of The Greeting. Viola has been inspired by Jacopo da Pontormo’s picture Visitation devoted to the biblical scene when Marry comes to visit her sister Elizabeth when she has found out that she is pregnant. When Viola has decided to recreate all details of the process of greeting, he asks his friend specializing in pictures to create toy images in the process of greeting. It has been quite an unusual course of his work.
Bill Viola uses a special camera with high-speed film creating The Greeting. This camera allows you to catch every split second. Viola usually does all his work himself, but he refers to the help of many specialists to create The Greeting. Sometimes it is quite unbelievable that all his previous projects have been created single-handed. Although many projects seem to be simple, it is necessary a lot of effort to catch the necessary moment, to fit the necessary light and angle. It takes a lot of time and effort to create one such project. Every split second is very important for Viola, and he aims at creating the touching moment of all things surrounding us. He uses slow motion to catch this touching moment and pass it to the audience. People may observe things from the other side. Even such an ordinary phenomenon as a greeting is observed from another point of view. Viola presents all details of this process with its warmth and emotions so that it has become very valuable for us. This project helps to understand the value of all ordinary things surrounding us. More than that, Viola’s Greeting provides the possibility to take pleasure in every moment of our life.
From the above said, we may conclude that Viola’s creative work is quite sophisticated, but it has a lot of deep sense that is not available for everybody. Viola tries to create every detail of our life with the help of a camera. These details allow us to understand life better and appreciate every moment of our life. Viola’s process of work, as well as the results of his work, amazes them with its mysteriousness and creativity. The things that seem to be quite simple and mediocre are recreated in Viola’s hands and presented in quite a fascinating way. Viola’s kind of art teaches people to pay a lot of attention to every second of their life, which is so precious as far as it passes and is impossible to repeat again.