Bill Viola and David Lachapelle
I first saw an exhibition by Viola way before my photography days in London at the National gallery. It had to do with faces, well emotions on faces to be exact. But the images were not stills they were moving images, videos. The intriguing part was that the movement was in slow motion. At the time I was taken by this. Later I saw other pieces of his work such as the figures under fire and water, and human faces submerged under water…are they dead or alive? Either way his work has attracted attention and for me he has reemerged into my visual awareness as an artist worthy of investigation.
One piece of work that stands out is: The Crossing (water), 1996 which is a video sound installation that involves a figure walking out of the dark and then being showered upon by a downpour of water.
Like many or most of his pieces, they are dramatically produced. Often he uses a dark background to maximise the use of studio light in combination with the music and movement.
The music that accompanies his pieces evokes another level of response in addition to the visual element. It is strong stuff. Often I find myself thrown into a kind of existential reflection of some kind, often life and death!
There are often strong religious connotations in his work, that seem to reflect something of his own view of religion. Unlike the work for example of ‘Thy kingdom come’ (2009) Lachapelle D. his work has a seriousness as opposed to a rebelliousness that I see in Lachapelle’s work. Their styles in some way are very similar if viewed as stills and not video. The work of Lachapelle is also quite cathartic and often has sexual symbolism and imagery mixed in with the religious. His work (and his video film work) are like visual punches to the abdomen. His work falls into the genre of semi-surrealism and fantasy.
It strikes me as interesting that there are many tools at the hand of the visual artist, especially those working in the digital mediums and these two artists have exploited very thoroughly the use of this medium.
Helmut Newton comments of Lachapelle:
He isn’t very impressed by current photography. ‘‘There’s a lot of pornographic pictures taken by the young today,” he said. ”There’s a magazine, Purple.” He frowned. ”A lot of the nudity is just gratuitous. But someone who makes me laugh is David LaChapelle. I think he’s very bright, very funny, and good.
To this I would have to agree. That a lot of what passes as visual nudity really now is beginning to feel a bit past it and pretentious to my eye. However, with Lachapelle I can see a social message, a commentary happening which makes it more interesting to engage with.
Viola has the capacity to capture the attention of the viewer through the video work. As the videos are usually in slow motion, it means that one has to stay with the movement of the frames to see what the outcome will be. Thus they are a kind of moving meditation.
I chose to compare these two artists because I have been impressed by them both for the way that I felt that they affected me and also to explore their very different styles and to see how they are both effective.
References
- Image 1. Viola B. Water http://www.billviola.com [accessed April 2017]
- LaChapelle D. Thy kingdom come (2009) http://davidlachapelle.com/series/thy-kingdom-come/ [accessed April 2017]
- Newton H. Helmet Newton’s new book. Article by Cathy Horin (Nov.16 1999) http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/16/style/helmut-newton-s-new-book-with-its-own-coffee-table.html?src=pm [accessed April 2014]
OCA log level 1 Photography 