Research - Bill Viola - Anima

'Anima' by Bill Viola

'Anima' is another piece of work from Bill Viola that I found in his book from the library. The piece is three different videos of three different people displaying four primary emotions: joy, sorrow, anger, and fear. The piece reminded me of the photographs that I took for my last project: Multiple as Identity.

Viola's videos are hung up in frames like a photograph. That is because the video is so slow that to the human eye it looks like a still image. Unless you look a way for a few minuets and then look back at the video you will not see any movement. It is so minimal that the original one minuet video is now eighty-one minuets due to the slow motion.

I think that it is clever how the videos do not appear to be videos when you first look at them, I like the confussion that it would bring to the audience as if they look away and then back to the "photograph" it would have moved which would intreg the audience and leave them wondering whether it actually did move or whether or not it was just their imagination. I also like the way Viola has displayed this piece, by framing it he has enhanced the view of it being a still photograph. You wouldn't expect a video to be displayed in a frame and so when you see the image move you will question what you saw and whether or not it was just your mind playing tricks or it actually moved.

This has got me thinking about how I will display my video. I know that I can project my video or display it on a laptop but I don't know whether that will diminish my video. I want what it is displaying in or on to match or link in with the meaning behind my video.

Walsh, John. (2003). Bill Viola: The Passions. United States of America. Getty Publications.

Larkin, A. (2012). [Photographs of book; Bill Viola: The Passions, Pages 80-81, 84-85]. In possession of: Amy Larkin: Eltham