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Exhibitions

Bill Viola @ St. Paul’s Cathedral

The church was luxurious and opulent.

There was a revolving door and I saw a few lit candles near pictures of Jesus

I saw four screens at the end of a hall, each with a person martyring him or herself.

One man was curled on the floor, then was pulled up by the feet and had icy cold water poured on them. We was finally pulled up and away to parts unknown.

One man sits alone and in silence on a chair, sparks reign down around him but he ignores them. The sparks ignite and start a blazing fire that flourishes into a raging inferno but he man ignores this as well, and thought the chair he sits on catches fire, he remains unburnt.

Another was shown in total and utter reverse, starting with a unidentifiable, nebulous person almost completely buried under a pile of grating sand. The sand is slowly pulled upward and sucked of offscreen. The person is more and more uncovered, like an ancient monument being uncovered by archaeologists. The person, reveal to be a man in white, gets to his feet and once the sand is gone altogether he stands in silence.

Another shows a woman being held by her feet and hands. She blown by tremendous, fearsome winds. She wear a white dress and was the one that least intrigued me.

Another video in another room on the other side of the church, only a short walk away, shows the symbolism of Mary, starting with a bald black woman in a red dress breastfeeding an infant, healthy, clean looking river near some mountains, then showing a live campfire, a comparing crouching near it (presumably for warmth), a dark and bleak forest, a cactus, a line of dead fish, a house on a dark night,a of Mary in a blue hood holding and looking at a dead Jesus,

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By tomsadegasellis

A collection of musings and short films

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