Bill Viola lecture at Oregon State University
Thursday, March 15, 2007
A reception for video artist Bill Viola was held at 6pm today in the LaSells Stewart Center on the Oregon State University campus. It was followed by a free two-hour public lecture by the artist entitled, The Voyage of No Return. Full event details are available at the OSU Department of Art. The Reflecting Pool (1977-79) and Observance (2002), two video installations by Bill Viola, also opened on March 12 in Fairbanks Gallery, Fairbanks Hall. The exhibition runs through March 24.
I was first introduced to Bill Viola as an undergraduate at Penn State University when his video installation The Crossing was exhibited in the Palmer Museum of Art in the fall of 1999. And of course he also created the visuals for Nine Inch Nails’ 2000 Fragility Tour. Check out NIN’s And All That Could Have Been (2002) DVD for a featurette on Viola in which he discusses the video segment he created specifically for the band’s tour.
If you ever get a chance to see Viola’s video installations or hear him speak, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for the OSU Department of Art for bringing him to campus.