Bill Viola
Ascension

Ascension

© Bill Viola

Ascension
Ascension
ArtistAmerican, 1951–2024
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Ascension
Date2000
Made inUnited States
MediumSingle-channel video and stereo-sound installation, edition 3/3
Dimensions10 minutes
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha in honor of Fayez Sarofim on the occasion of their tenth wedding anniversary
Object number2001.152
Not on view

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Description

Ascension opens with a dark field of water, punctuated by a shaft of cutting sunlight. This calm expanse is suddenly disturbed by the dramatic plunging of a fully clothed man. With his arms raised laterally like those of Christ on the cross, the diver first floats toward the surface and then descends out of the field of vision. The dramatic sounds, turbulent waters, and swarm of air bubbles give way to the original deep-blue void, the sparkling sunlight again infusing the water with an otherworldly glow.


Bill Viola is one of the pioneers of video art. Post-production, he extended Ascension’s entire sequence, which was only a few seconds in real time, into 10 minutes of extreme duration. With such a contradictory play between title and image—Ascension is an image of a man descending, after all—Viola sets up a series of dualities. Why, he asks, do we believe that heaven is above and hell below? Like the man in this video, the viewer is also immersed in the artist’s visual field. For Viola, water is both a vehicle and a site for altered consciousness and spiritual reawakening.


ProvenanceThe artist; [James Cohan Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2001.
Exhibition History"Contemporary Art and Photography: Spotlight on the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 30, 2001–February 3, 2002.

"Bill Viola: Something Above, Beyond, Below, Beneath," The Tacoma Art Museum, June 4–September 2, 2002.

"The Passions," Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 22–March 12, 2005.

"VIDEO: Beyond the Frame," Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, West Virginia, May 5–July 15, 2007.

"Color into Light: Selections from the MFAH Collection," The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, December 13, 2008–March 22, 2009.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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