Bill Viola and Kira Perov: Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)
Title: Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water)
Artist: Bill Viola (b. 1951, American) and Kira Perov
Location: St Paul’s Cathedral (C of E)
Date: 2014
This work was shortlisted for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2015.
‘Bill Viola’s Martyrs at St Paul’s Cathedral was/is ambitious in both the subject and the setting of the installation. It takes your eye down the south aisle from under the Dome. We saw photographs of it behind an altar at which the Eucharist was being celebrated. Without that liturgical context I found it harder to read but visitors were attentive and stayed through the whole sequence. Intensely theological it addressed big issues of the day and asked questions of us about meaning, life, death and what we would give our lives for.’ (Nicholas Holtam, chair of the judging panel for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2015)
This is a work comprised of four parallel videos in which four individuals are subjected to a physical onslaught of earth, air, fire and water respectively. The silent loop of 7 minutes takes us from moments of anticipation through to the full subjugation of the body.
Bill Viola (b. 1951, American) is internationally recognized as one of today’s leading artists. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. For forty years he has created videotapes, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, and works for television broadcast. Viola received his BFA in Experimental Studios from Syracuse University in 1973 where he studied visual art with Jack Nelson and electronic music with Franklin Morris. And since the early 1970s Viola’s video art works have been seen all over the world.
Kira Perov is executive director of Bill Viola Studio. She has worked closely with Bill Viola, her husband and partner since 1979, managing, creatively guiding and assisting with the production of all of his videotapes and installations, and photographing the process. She also edits publications, curates, organises and coordinates exhibitions of the work worldwide.
Further Information
Medium: Video Installation
Size: 338 x 140 x 10cm
Permanent display
See Viola’s Martyrs on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral
Other artworks in churches by Bill Viola: Ocean Without a Shore, 56th Venice Biennale at the 15th century church of San Gallo (2007); The Tristan Project, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and St Saviour’s Church, Sydney, Australia (2008); Fire Woman and Tristan’s Ascension, presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects in association with the Melbourne International Arts Festival; St. Carthage's Church, Melbourne, Australia (2010); Vía Mistica, an exhibition occupying four venues in the ancient city of Cuenca, Spain, was installed in three churches and the Museo de Arte Abstracto, a hanging house, in this UNESCO World Heritage Site. Transfigurations series work Visitation (2008) was inaugurated in Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden, for permanent installation in one of its chapels. See more information here.