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Bill Viola, The Fall into Paradise, 2005, single-channel video installation, high-definition, color, sound; 09:58 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.56, © 2005, Bill Viola
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Artwork Details
- Title
- The Fall into Paradise
- Artist
- Date
- 2005
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- dimensions variable
- Copyright
- © 2005, Bill Viola
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
- Mediums
- Mediums Description
- single-channel video installation, high-definition, color, sound; 09:58 minutes
- Classifications
- Highlights
- Object Number
- 2012.56
Artwork Description
Bill Viola explored themes of transformation and transcendence from emotional, philosophical, and spiritual perspectives. In The Fall into Paradise, a single pixel appears in the void, then slowly expands to reveal two figures entwined in an embrace. Just at the instant the figures become clear, they explode through the surface into a spectacular display of color and light. The performers' experience represents a moment of transcendental and spiritual breakthrough, tracing Viola's continuing search for consciousness and empirical knowledge through art.
Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015
Exhibitions
April 30, 2013–February 15, 2015
Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image is a series of rotating exhibitions drawn from SAAM’s permanent collection. The works of art featured in this installation identify a complex relationship between still photography and moving images. These artistic engagements with captured and recorded pictures examine notions of storytelling and processes of interpretation, underscoring just how relative meaning can be, and urging viewers to question where the power of imagery might reside. Taken together, the arrangement traces a vibrant call and response between artists and pictures, narratives, and interpretation.