Bill Viola pioneered the video art form nearly 30 years ago, when hardly anybody was experimenting with it. He likes to combine Buddhism and Zen concepts with his trippy videography. This image is taken from his 1996 video “The Crossing,” a super-slow-moving video of a man walking. He’s just walking, on a life-sized projector, through fire and rain. It’s mesmerizing.
Here you can see an excerpt from his video, Anthem (1983), which features a screaming girl, Gregorian and Buddhist chants, giant oil pumps, a human heart, and surgical tools. Apparently it’s Viola’s way of exploring our primal fears and the mind-body experience. Image by the Mori Art Museum
