Bill Viola: Transfigurations    Jun 27 - Jul 31, 2008

Opening reception for the artist: Friday June 27, 2008, 5-7 pm

Kukje Gallery is pleased to present Bill Viola: Transfigurations, an exhibition of video and sound installations by a major international figure in contemporary art. His second one-person exhibition in Korea at Kukje Gallery since 2003, the exhibition begins on June 27 and runs through July 31, 2008.

The Transfigurations series grew out of the large scale installation Ocean Without a Shore Viola created in 2007, for the Venice Biennale. Conceived for and installed in the 15th century Chiesa di San Gallo, the work is primarily about the importance of the role the dead play in our lives. Taking its title from the Andalucian Sufi mystic Ibn al’Arabi (1165-1240), it consists of three-screen High Definition video with sound, and incorporates the architectural elements of the three stone altars as support structure for the flat screens.

The first floor of the gallery has been divided up into several rooms to show several types of pieces that have emerged from Ocean Without a Shore. There are works with a group together in a single frame, like Three Women (2008) and a small series of two-panel diptychs such as The Innocents (2007), The Arrangement (2007). There is also a work such as Small Saints (2008), a row of six miniature screens in a ‘predella’-like arrangement. They all show a cyclical progression of images slowly emerging from complete darkness and crossing an imperceptible threshold of water and light to achieve their incarnate forms only momentarily before returning to the shadows.

In addition to these works from the Transfigurations series, Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001) will be on display on the second floor of the gallery. It features five video images accompanied by sound projected directly onto the walls in a darkened room. Individually titled (Birth Angel, Fire Angel, Ascending Angel, Creation Angel, and Departing Angel), each panel shows a video sequence of a figure plunging into or re-emerging from water playing in a continuous loop. Marking the culmination of a number of earlier studies of figures moving through water, Viola describes that work shows ‘the human form traversing the gap between heaven and earth, suspended between light and darkness, time and eternity, life and death.’

Bill Viola is one of the most influential artists of his generation, specifically in the medium of video. Born in New York in 1951, he studied art at Syracuse University where he began to experiment with film, video and music. Viola has been instrumental in establishing video as a vital form of contemporary art, and has helped expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For more than 35 years, he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video, and works for television.

Bill Viola lives and works in Long Beach, California, with wife and collaborator, Kira Perov, and their two children.

RELATED EVENTS

Thursday, June 26, 3-5 pm
TRANSFORMATION, Artist lecture
Auditorium, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea

May 30 – October 26, 2008
OCEAN WITHOUT A SHORE (2007), 3-channel high definition video/sound installation
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea

The large-scale installation by Bill Viola for the Venice Biennale (2007) was installed in the 15th century Chiesa di San Gallo and is now on view in Korea.