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Image of Memoria

Memoria
New Media

2000
24 x 30 x 60 in. (60.96 x 76.2 x 152.4 cm)

Bill Viola (New York, New York, 1951 - )

Object Type: New Media
Medium and Support: DVD, DVD player, projector, and silk
Credit Line: Museum purchase with funds contributed by Ann Marie and Averill Mix and from the Lipman Family Foundation.
Accession Number: 2001.17

Exhibition


Vital Signs: New Media from the Permanent Collection, June 12, 2010 - February 6, 2011, New Wing, Second Floor, South Gallery, San José Museum of Art.

Collection Highlights, November 2, 2002 - September 12, 2004, New Wing, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, First Floor, San José Museum of Art.

Blind Vision: Video and the Limits of Perception, August 4, 2001 - November 14, 2001, Historic Wing, Paul L. Davies Gallery, Second Floor, San José Museum of Art.

SJMA Label Text


Vital Signs: New Media from the Permanent Collection (2010-2011)

How long does it take for a single image to become a vision or a memory? In Memoria, Bill Viola provides an intimate space in which to consider the perceptual relationship between time, sound, and vision. Like a modern-day Shroud of Turin - the centuries-old linen burial cloth that many believe reveals an image of Christ - Viola's Memoria projects onto silk the image of a face that gradually articulates all the expressions of human emotion.

"The central core of my living being, my aliveness, is the same essence present within all people, and furthermore… this essence extends beyond the human family and lies embedded in the foundations of nature."
-- Bill Viola

In his more than thirty years of work with video, Bill Viola has explored the essence of what it means to be human. The experiences of birth, consciousness, and death unite us all and find reflection in the patterns of nature. In Memoria (2000), Viola explored emotion, specifically pain, misery, grief, and distress—and created a portrait of human suffering. The projected image of a man flickers in and out of visibility, as if he is the personification of a fleeting memory. Provoked by an unseen force, he expresses a range of emotions related to human suffering, letting them ebb and flow like ocean waves."

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  • Installation Dimensions: 24 x 30 x 60 in. (60.96 x 76.2 x 152.4 cm)

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