Bill ViolaNantes Triptych 1992

The Nantes Triptych was originally conceived as a commission for the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in France, to be shown in a 17^th century chapel in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Nantes in 1992. Viola has taken the form of the triptych, traditionally used in Western art for religious paintings, to represent, through the medium of video, his own contemporary form of spiritual iconography. The three panels of Viola's triptych show video footage of birth (on the left), death (on the right) and a metaphorical journey between the two represented by a body floating in water (in the centre). The footage used was not originally shot for this particular project… (read more)