A pioneer in the medium of video art, Bill Viola's work explores the spiritual and perceptual side of human experience. Since 1970 he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances and pieces for television. Works include Hatsu Yume (First Dream), The Passing, and installations Room for St. John of the Cross, The Messenger and The Quintet of the Astonished, recently shown at the National Gallery, London in "Encounters, New Art from Old". A 25-year survey exhibition of his work organized by The Whitney Museum of American Art recently traveled to 6 institutions in the USA and Europe. MacArthur Fellow.
Known For
Return
(1975)
Director
Full Filmography
Directing
Information
(1973)
Director
Return
(1975)
Director
Playing Soul Music to My Freckles
(1975)
Director
A Non-Dairy Creamer
(1975)
Director
The Semi-Circular Canals
(1975)
Director
A Million Other Things (2)
(1975)
Director
Red Tape: Collected Works
(1975)
Director
Migration (for Jack Nelson)
(1976)
Director
Songs of Innocence
(1976)
Director
Four Songs
(1976)
Director
Truth Through Mass Individuation
(1976)
Director
The Space Between the Teeth
(1976)
Director
Junkyard Levitation
(1976)
Director
The Morning After the Night of Power
(1977)
Director
Sweet Light
(1977)
Director
The Wheel of Becoming
(1977)
Director
Memory Surfaces and Mental Prayers
(1977)
Director
Memories Of Ancestral Power
(1977)
Director
He Weeps for You
(1977)
Director
Chott el-Djerid (A Portrait in Light and Heat)
(1979)
Director
The Reflecting Pool
(1979)
Director
Moving Stillness: Mount Rainier 1979
(1979)
Director
Moonblood
(1979)
Director
Vegetable Memory
(1980)
Director
Hatsu Yume (First Dream)
(1981)
Director
Ancient of Days
(1982)
Director
Anthem
(1983)
Director
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House
(1983)
Director
Reverse Television - Portraits of Viewers
(1984)
Director
I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like
(1986)
Director
Sodium Vapor
(1986)
Director
Silent Life
(1986)
Director
Angel's Gate
(1989)
Director
The Stopping Mind
(1990)
Director
The Passing
(1992)
Director
The Sleepers
(1992)
Director
Slowly Turning Narrative
(1992)
Director
The Nantes Triptych
(1992)
Director
Heaven and Earth
(1992)
Director
Déserts
(1994)
Director
The Greeting
(1995)
Director
The Veiling
(1995)
Director
The Crossing
(1996)
Director
Anima
(2000)
Director
The Quintet of the Astonished
(2000)
Director
Four Hands
(2001)
Director
Catherine's Room
(2001)
Director
Surrender
(2001)
Director
The Voyage
(2002)
Director
Going Forth By Day
(2002)
Director
Fire Birth
(2002)
Director
The Path
(2002)
Director
Emergence
(2003)
Director
The Raft
(2004)
Director
The Tristan Project
(2004)
Director
Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall)
(2005)
Director
Ablutions
(2005)
Director
Basin of Tears
(2005)
Director
Fire Woman
(2005)
Director
Ocean Without a Shore
(2007)
Director
The Innocents
(2008)
Director
Three Women
(2008)
Director
A Phrase from Chris
(2011)
Director
The Encounter
(2012)
Director
Walking on the Edge
(2012)
Director
Man Searching for Immortality/Woman Searching for Eternity
(2013)
Director
The Dreamers
(2013)
Director
Martyrs
(2014)
Director
Martyrs: Air
(2014)
Director
Martyrs: Fire
(2014)
Director
Martyrs: Earth
(2014)
Director
Martyrs: Water
(2014)
Director
Inverted Birth
(2014)
Director
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
(2018)
Director
Acting
Return
(1975)
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House
(1983)
The Voyage
(2002)
Gatekeeper
Bill Viola: The Eye of the Heart
(2003)
Self
What Is Cinema?
(2013)
Self
Bill Viola: The Road to St. Paul's
(2017)
Self
Writing
Return
(1975)
Writer
Migration (for Jack Nelson)
(1976)
Idea
Anthem
(1983)
Writer
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House
(1983)
Writer
Angel's Gate
(1989)
Idea
The Raft
(2004)
Writer
Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall)
(2005)
Idea
Camera
Migration (for Jack Nelson)
(1976)
Director of Photography
Guadalcanal Requiem
(1977)
Director of Photography
Angel's Gate
(1989)
Director of Photography
Editing
Crew