Bill Viola

I have been looking at work by Bill Viola today.  His work is creative and can be very confronting.  Below is his video art work from 2004 titled "The Raft".

A very violent and emotional work.  Bill said that this work was commissioned for the 2004 Athens Olympics, showing a cross section of humanity.  They are waiting and then suddenly bombarded by powerful jets of water, knocking them down in a violent manner.  After the wave of destruction the people then start to get up and check on each other.  Bill said that he wanted the work to show people being able to withstand the onslaught and get back on their feet and go at it again.

"The Raft" eerily resonates with "The Raft of the Medusa", a very famous work from 1818 by Theodore Gericault.  This is the work below:

Gericault's 'Raft' shows the aftermath of the sinking Meduse in which over 140 people desperately clung on to the raft and hoped for life.  In reality only 15 people survived.  I think it's very simple to compare the meanings of the two 'Raft' works - surviving disaster, the glimmer of hope, strength in adversity, but I also tend to think that the works are also about chance.  Sometimes there is no reason for the terrible things that happen in life and bad things happen to good people all the time.