Bill Viola American 1951– Still from Ocean without a shore 2007 Three channel high definition video transferred to computer hard drive, sound, plasma screen monitors, 90 min, edition of 3 Photo: Kira Perov © Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York
Ocean without a shore by Bill Viola is currently showing at the NGV International. I saw this installation in Melbourne about three months ago and I find myself still thinking about it from time to time.
It consists of three videos on plasma screens, one on each wall, in a darkened room. Originally it was shown in a 15th century chapel in Venice, each plasma monitor placed atop a stone alter hundreds of years old. I would have liked to see that. The darkened exhibition space does still somehow carry some of the aura of a church though. It felt particularly cold in that room.
Viola describes the piece as exploring ‘the presence of the dead in our lives’. Each screen seems to house (rather than depict) a human figure wandering toward us. The footage initially seems grainy, this is because it is filmed through a cascading sheet of water (this isn't a digital effect), suddenly the figure breaks through and can be seen clearly now, trance-like, as the water pours down. Eventually the figure recedes as quietly and simply as it arrived. The exhibition notes describe the figures as "the dead attempting to re-enter our world". I was moved. Plus if you can get to Melbourne it's free..
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