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Artworks
He Weeps for You, 1976
Video/sound installation
Water drop from copper pipe; live color camera with macro lens; amplified drum; video projection in dark room; two loudspeakers
Continuously runningProjected image size: 7 ft 6 in. x 10 ft 2 in. (2.3 x 3.1 m)
Room dimensions: 13 ft x 29 ft 5 in. x 36 ft (4 x 9 x 11 m)
Edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proofSoldEdition 1: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kultur-besitz, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany Edition 2: Kramlich Collection, San Francisco In a darkened space, a copper pipe runs down from the ceiling, terminating in...Edition 1: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kultur-besitz, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
Edition 2: Kramlich Collection, San Francisco
In a darkened space, a copper pipe runs down from the ceiling, terminating in a
small brass valve, from which a single drop of water is slowly emerging. A live
color video camera, fitted with a special lens attachment used for extreme close-
up magnification, is focused in on this drop. The camera is connected to a video
projector that displays the swelling drop of water on a large screen at the rear of
the space. The optical properties of the waterdrop cause it to act like a wide-
angle lens, revealing an image of a room and those within it. The drop grows in
size gradually, swelling in surface tension, until it fills the screen. Suddenly it
falls out of the picture and a loud, resonant sound is heard as it lands on an
amplified drum. Then, in an endless cycle of repetition, a new drop begins to
emerge and again fill the screen.
The simultaneous scales represented in the live video/water system draw a
connection to the traditional philosophy or belief that everything on the higher
order of existence reflects, and is contained in, the manifestation and operation
of the lower orders. This idea has been expressed in ancient religious terms as
the symbolic correspondence of the mundane (the earth) and the divine (the
heavens), and is also represented in the theories of contemporary physics that
describe how each particle of matter in space contains knowledge or information
about the entire system.Exhibitions
1976Watson Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY USA
1977
“documenta 6,” Kassel, Germany
1979
“Projects: Bill Viola,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY USA
1989
“Bill Viola,” Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukui City, Japan
1997–2000
“Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey,” organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art. Travels to Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, USA; in 1998: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; in 1999: Museum für Moderne Kunst and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, Germany; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, USA; in 1999–2000: Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
2001
“He Weeps for You,” Bellevue Art Museum, WA, USA
2007
"From Bill Viola to Aernut Mik: Works from the National Gallery Collection,” Hamburger Banhof, Berlin, Germany
2010
“Deux eternités proches - Thierry Kuntzel / Bill Viola," Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, France
2019
“I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like,” Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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