Browse the reactions of other viewers to Viola's work below.

These reactions were submitted to this site between January 17 and April 28, 2003. The site is now closed to new reactions.

The opinions presented here may have been edited and do not reflect the opinions of the Getty.

< previous   

I would like to respond to the person who noticed that some of the actors are re-used in these videos. It's a good point because it makes you wonder, "What's their relationship to the artist?"

It's really remarkable to see so many different emotional faces from one person all at once, as in Six Heads. You usually see only one emotion at a time from someone. It's quite like a comic strip.

Viola seems to be re-using the actors in these videos. It annoys me. The singularity of each piece is lost.

Emergence could also be a baptism scene.

How many works are in the exhibition?

There are 13 works in this exhibition. You can see a complete list on the Checklist and credits page on this site.

You say that Viola mentioned seeing someone worship a statue in a museum in Tokyo. I have seen people in the galleries of the Getty Museum, especially in the medieval galleries, making the sign of the cross in front of some of the European altarpieces and paintings. I think much art can serve this spiritual purpose as well.

This exhibition really shows how contemporary art relates to older art.

Silent Mountain is claustrophobic and sad.

Silent Mountain is AMAZING! I love how the emotions travel from extreme to extreme. Thank you for putting this up!

Do you know if The Quintet of the Astonished was on view at the Met last spring? I think that is the work I saw there. It was amazing.

Viola has created quite a few works using the Quintet theme—a group of 5 actors moving through various emotional states. Quintet of the Astonished is the only one displayed in this particular exhibition. You can find a list of past exhibitions of Viola's work on his Web site: http://www.billviola.com.

Were the two people in Locked Garden standing next to each other, when the video was filmed?

They were not standing together when it was filmed. After viewing the two videos together Viola decided to incorporate them into the same piece. For more about this, see The Locked Garden "Two Videos Become One" in The Art section of this site.

< previous