Mysticism In The Works Of Bill Viola

Video,a way for us to see and reproduce the world around us,is a special form of visual culture in the 20 th century.Being a time-based medium,it can present a fourth dimension that is invisible to the naked eye.For example,the videotape has a direct imprint on the outside world,which shows us a world that is deeper and more mysterious than people realize.Bill Viola,as a representative of image art,has greatly promoted the development of image art into an important art category in contemporary art.Through the video,the artist shows us the hidden dimensions of our lives and awakens us to return to internality.Taking Viola's works from the early stage to the present stage as research clues,the author uses specific examples to study how the artist presents his mystical thoughts through media and tries to awaken people's numb spirit and body perception in the era of media saturation.In the operation of society,there is a force spanning cultures and nations hides beneath the surface,harmonizing opposites.Viola draws nutrients from traditional ideas such as Buddhism,Christianity,Islam,Taoism,Hinduism,mysticism and so on.He tries to find this kind of power,and the roots of the multiculturalism that is associated with spiritual life of mankind and the commonalities under various systems,applying them to artistic creation,tapping into the spirituality of people's daily lives.For this reason,in addition to its ability to predict and recall,his art is beyond historical time.The thesis starts from Viola's background as a video artist and leads to his contact with mysticism and its influence.Secondly,it analyzes and discusses three themes related to mysticism in combination with Viola's image works.These include the four elements(water,fire,wind and earth),mystical experiences and views of life and death that he frequently USES in his works.Then the author explores the mysterious experience in the image works and the view of life and death of the video works in the third and fourth chapter.The theoretical theories of Hans Bertin,Regis Debray,Don Cubitt,William James and others will be used in the analysis of concrete works.In this paper,the author examines the media(technology)via the theme of Viola's relationship with mysticism.On the one hand,the author re-examines the artist's work and explains the mysticism in it.On the other hand,the author analyzes the artistic language of video,then explains its fusion relationship with mysticism and the reason why the video art,as an art of times,is the optimum presentation to awaken the spiritual world.