THE GUARDIAN
By
@SearleAdrian
 |
| Theatrical … Bill Viola’s Tristan’s Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall), 2005. Photograph: Kira Perov/courtesy Bill Viola Studio |
Bill Viola/Michelangelo is subtitled Life Death Rebirth. The three words are the first thing you see in the Royal Academy’s pairing of the two artists. You enter fully alive. About half way through the dark, labyrinthine galleries, we meet an naked elderly couple, each projected on a slab of black granite, examining their own bodies with small torches. Apparently, he is searching for immortality, she for eternity. By now I wish it were over. At the end, we come across a woman silhouetted against a wall of flame. This is the last frontier. The pairing of Viola’s video installations with Michelangelo drawings is not, the RA insists, an attempt to elevate the American video artist to the status of a modern Michelangelo. Rather, it is an attempt to point out affinities in subject matter and spiritual aspirations: “The nature of being, the transience of life, and the search for a greater meaning beyond mortality.” [
More]
 |
| Always engaging … Michelangelo’s The Risen Christ. Photograph: Royal Collection Trust |
