Unspeakable Art of Bill Viola e-bog

The breach of art from religion is just one of the many unhappy legacies of modernism. There was a time, however, when the aesthetic and the spiritual were of a piece. This study of the work of American video artist Bill Viola considers the possible reemergence of a theological dimension to contemporary art--a reenchantment of art, as some have called it. Using the high-tech apparatus of modern video, Viola's art is rooted precisely in this theological tradition of transcendent mystical experience and spiritual self-concentration. The technological apotheosis of modern image-making--high speed film, high-definition video, LCD and plasma screens, and sophisticated sound recording--are put to use by Viola in ways that significantly challenge prevailing intellectual and artistic traditions and return us to the power of the Sublime--that which, by definition, defeats language. Viola's art as such converges with postmodern notions of the "e;unrepresentable"e; and with the ancient theological tradition of apophasis, "e;speaking away"e; or "e;unsaying."e; The fullness of "e;meaning,"e; then, appears only as a promise of presence through embodied absence, neither fully here and now nor entirely elsewhere and beyond. This study seeks to define, through the work of a courageous and thoughtful contemporary artist, the theological sublime as an aesthetic of revelation.