Bill Viola’s Martyrs: Sleek, Glamorous, Empty

NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS
By Simon Willis

A view of Bill Viola’s video installation Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) on display at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

UNITED KINGDOM---Martyrs, a new work by the American video artist Bill Viola, is difficult to take as seriously as it takes itself. It is being shown as a permanent exhibit in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, just a few feet from the high altar, and is designed as a kind of altarpiece. The difference between Viola’s installation and these other memorials is that Martyrs is not about any particular people who died for any particular cause. As images of martyrdom they are rather limp and risk-free. The effect is that the videos—when compared with many other depictions of martyrdom both old and new—are one-dimensional. [link]