三個女人，是錄像大師bill viola的2008 系列作品之，其他還有夫妻、個人等等不同主角的作品，但這件『三個女人』是被藏家認為最具美感，最具收藏價值的一件作品，藏家c先生並強調說明它呼應了古典藝術繪畫的人文精神，是一件有文化底蘊的難得作品。
這件作品目前被台灣收藏家c先生以800萬新台幣購入，現正安置於台北市的某個小角落，託袁廣鳴師的福，在小小的空間裡，全黑的燈光，我得以一睹大師風采。

大師果然就是大師！從媒體藝術的第一章就開始，到此刻我站在一個黑暗小房間裡看著64"hd高畫質呈現時，只有激動，沒有言語，因為它是這麼細緻、完整、成熟，而且直入人心的一件作品，從黑白粗糙畫面到trans全彩高畫質的影像，其中的對比拉出一張極具張力的水幕，呵～看啊～那熟練的母親，勇邁的步伐與神情。
荳蔻少女那青春的容顏充滿多少迷惘，望向一個新世界時，花樣年華的她，急忙將小女孩拉出來，當小女孩展現驚喜的眼神，剎那，母親忽而從彩色退回到黑白時，那種死亡的在場性，多麼震攝人心。
小女孩的神情又多麼欣喜，及不捨。
在短短一兩分鐘內，我似乎見證了三個女人的一生，她們的歡喜哀愁，人生的高潮起伏，以及藏匿在劇本背後的無常滋味。
總歸一句：悠悠白雲。了得了～

我以無比震驚、興奮滿載的心情，收錄相關文章如下

Bill Viola, Three Women, 2008, color
 high-definition video on plasma display mounted on wall; performers: Anika, Cornelia, Helena Ballent, Photo: Kira Perov

以下段落轉錄自Eye Level

Zen and the Art of Video with Bill Viola
September 15, 2008
Bill Viola's Three Women

Bill Viola kicked off the 2008 Clarice Smith Distinguished Lectures in American Art series last week to a full house at SAAM. His talk "Transfigurations" gave a behind-the-scenes look into the artist's Zen-influenced philosophy of art, life, technology, and death. He has been making poetic moving images since "he first touched a video camera" in 1970, and as technology has deepened so has his art. The evening got off to an unexpected start when he collided with media arts curator John Hanhardt on his walk to the podium, sending his papers flying and rearranging the order. So, an artist known for non-linear thinking and works of art that connect time and space presented a non-linear talk that let us get as deep into the artist's marrow as I've heard in a long time: it was biography as personal philosophy.

Quoting from favorite philosophers and poets, he perhaps set the tone of the evening with this line from Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, "All creative acts are a kind of dying." For Viola, life and death pour out of the same spring. He related the story of holding his newborn son in his arms when all he could think was, "He could die." Life and death are not polar opposities but often come at you in one fell swoop.

Viola made repeated references to the arc of time and talked about how many of the Italian Renaissance artists  who we think of as "Old Masters" were the young radicals of their time. "All art is contemporary," according to Viola. Michelangelo was twenty-four when he created Pietà, Raphael was twenty-five when he did some of his finest work. These artists were the avant-garde of their time and employed new tools, such as the science of optics, when creating their works. Riffing on the present times Viola commented, "The meeting of art and science and the parallels today are extraordinary."

With that in mind, technology today can be used for good or its opposite. The finger that you can use to press SEND and wreak havoc on the Web is the same finger you use to tickle a child or caress your lover. Technology is fundamentally neutral, he reminded us. It's how we use it that defines us. "Like it or not," he added, "we are woven together in a way that has not happened in human history."

Though time was limited and he could only show us two examples of his work, the evening ended with the powerful Three Women, which Viola exhibited at the 2007 Venice Biennale. Here, a mother and her two daughters  first appear in grainy black and white, as if taken from a nineteenth-century painting or an early photographic image. They walk slowly, deliberately, until one by one their physical bodies become conduits of water, and they are released from their everyday lives. They also enter a world of color.

In comments Viola made to a group during the reception that followed, he told us that the woman was a friend who used to take care of his children when they were young, and the two girls were her daughters. Viola was also asked what he hoped to be doing next, to which he gave the very Zen reply: "Breathing."

You can view Viola's talk here.

Keyword * Bill Viola, Video, Clarice Smith, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum


以下擷取自art & culture

Bill Viola Video art -- that amorphous, ill-defined, ubiquitous beast of the art world -- is blessed with the presence of pioneer Bill Viola. He is one of the few contemporary Video artists who explores the medium both conceptually and sensually, rather than using it as a narrative document or film substitute. Through dramatic use of space, his installations function less as concrete works and more like enveloping, temporal environments aimed at creating visceral experiences for the viewer -- sort of like Happenings with a rewind button. Viola explores all the thematic "biggies": changing concepts of time and space, life and death, nature and culture, the material and the spiritual. One of his seamless pieces, "The Greeting" (1995), transfixes viewers with its revival of a vivid, palpable scene from a David painting -- only this time, the subjects can actually move and converse. There’s an additional twist: Viola radically slows down the motions of the three women, endowing each gesture with mesmerizing hyper-significance. "The Crossing" (1996), one of Viola’s most renowned works, is an exploration of transience. The piece features Viola emerging from a black void, growing larger as he walks towards the camera. When he finally stops, he suddenly bursts into flames. The video begins again, repeating Viola’s approach but this time depicting him being crushed by a torrent of water from above. Solid, material existence is destroyed by violent elemental forces, making life seem fragile, ephemeral, and transient. At the same time, the repetition in the piece suggests rebirth, growth, and development. Clearly, Viola doesn’t bother to conceal his themes with enigmas -- everything is more or less explicit. However, thematic intentions are not the priority; the enveloping experience informs the work's meaning. Viola's "He Weeps for You" (1976) features a tight shot of a drop of water, which leaks slowly from a spigot onto an amplified drum head, suddenly startling viewers with the improbably huge sound of its collision. Viola exaggerates the force of the tear in order to evoke emotional intensity. While some accuse him of being didactic and obvious, his work comes from a deeply personal place -- his technical feats and experimentation are infused with a unique sense of feeling.   Bill Viola in Amsterdam An ArchiNed article discusses a Bill Viola show at the Stedelijk in Amsterdam and comes complete with images.   Bill Viola: Buried Secrets A description and criticism of Viola's "Buried Secrets" exhibition opening at Arizona State Art Museum.   Bill Viola: Selected Works 1972 - 1996 Artmuseum.net's high-tech Viola installation offers video and non-video tours of a large selection of videos, documentation and interviews related to specific works, and videos of Viola himself discussing his work.   SFMOMA: Bill Viola The online version of the 1999 SFMOMA exhibit lets viewers see screen shots, video clips, and explanatory blurbs.   VEBA: Bill Viola Sponsored by VEBA, this site includes a list of selections from Viola's portfolio, with a screen shot and descriptive text for each.

---------------------------我是很喜歡這個小女孩表情的分隔線--------------------------------------------
以下轉貼自Pascale's Photoblog