Bill Viola
The Crossing, 1996
Video-sound installation
105 x 330 x 670 in. (2 m 66.7 cm x 8 m 38.2 cm x 17 m 1.8 cm)
Lay Family Acquisition Fund, General Acquisitions Fund, and gifts from an anonymous donor, Howard E. Rachofsky, Gayle Stoffel, Mr. and Mrs. William T. Solomon, Catherine and Will Rose, and Emily and Steve Summers, in honor of Deedie Rose, 1998.190
© Bill Viola, Long Beach, California. Photo: Kira Perov.

Bill Viola uses the communications media of our day to create art that is direct and profound. Over the last twenty-five years, Viola has been one of the most significant artists to use these new media to explore enduring artistic themes and concerns. In The Crossing, Viola has placed a large projection screen in the center of a darkened gallery. On both sides of this screen, a human form approaches the viewer from a deep distance. Once this figure of a man stops, the two natural elements of fire and water begin to appear on the screen. On one side, a small flame licks at the figure’s feet, and on the other a small stream begins to drip and then pour on the figure’s head.

Soon the fire and water increase in intensity and engulf the figure. Eventually the fire and water, accompanied by a roaring soundtrack, fill the entire screen and reach a crescendo of motion and sound. Then the fire and water begin to die down. It soon becomes apparent the figure has disappeared. The screen goes dark, and, after a few moments, the cycle begins again.

Visually and physically riveting, The Crossing is an integration of the traditional power of sculpture and the immediacy of video and sound technologies. Similar to a two-sided altarpiece, the illuminated, synchronized moving images of a human form on each side of the screen are parallel worlds in one universe: an endless cycle of death and renewal. While not overtly specific, the image of man being annihilated by fire and water recalls iconic, symbolic imagery and themes found in sacred and secular narratives throughout time. A meditation on the very forces of life and existence, The Crossing, violent and beautiful, presents a scenario that dissolves distinctions between the public and private and the conscious and unconscious. It does not depict or describe an experience: The Crossing is an experience.