Hatsu Yume (First Dream) (1981) by Bill Viola
Sunday, November 3, 2024, 7:30 pm
Hatsu Yume: Remembering Bill Viola
Presented in association with CounterPulse
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Admission: $15 General / $12 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here
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The unfolding of consciousness, the revelation of beauty, present even after death, the moment of awe, the space without words, the emptiness that builds mountains, the joy of loving, the sorrow of loss, the gift of leaving something behind for the next traveler. – Bill Viola
Bill Viola (1951–2024) was an artist who worked in single-channel video, sound, installation and new media for over fifty years. Proclaimed by art critic Laura Cumming as “the Rembrandt of the video age,” Viola was known for works which explored sentience, sensual visuality and the rhythms of birth and death, often using the flow of the electricity and the instability of the analog video image as metaphor for consciousness, works expressing an expansive and unashamed spirituality and timelessness in stark contrast to more communication-oriented video art. Very rarely screened locally in cinema spaces (and not by Cinematheque in over thirty years, Cinematheque celebrates Bill Viola by screening his 1981 work Hatsu Yume (First Dream):
Hatsu-Yume is Japanese for the first prophetic dream in the new year. For Bill Viola, this is an archetypal dream, a dream that any person could have. Bill Viola made this video work in Japan, where he lived for 18 months, immersing himself in the culture and Zen Buddhism. We see images of Japanese nature and everyday culture: a sunset, bamboo forests, rocks, a fish market, fishing boats. […] The viewer becomes aware that things are more than they seem. As in much of Viola’s previous work, time plays an important role. Water and light are frequently employed as metaphors to express the passing of time and themes such as life and death. In Viola’s words: “I was thinking about light and its relation to water and to life, and also its opposite — darkness or the night and death. Video treats light like water — it becomes fluid on the video tube. Water supports the fish like light supports man. Land is the death of the fish — darkness is the death of man.” (Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam)
Program will also include Migration (1976/2010) and Anthem (1983), both by Viola.
SCREENING:
Migration (1976/2010) by Bill Viola; video, color, sound, 7 minutes.
Anthem (1983) by Bill Viola; video, color, sound, 12 minutes.
Hatsu Yume (First Dream) (1981) by Bill Viola; video, color, sound, 56 minutes.
All exhibition files from Electronic Arts Intermix