"The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?"
"The death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world, and equally is it beyond doubt that the lips best suited for such topic are those of a bereaved lover."
Attributed: "There is nothing more beautiful than the death of a beautiful woman."
Sadness and beauty are close friends
Quotes on the role of Art and Religion:
“Anytime you are making something that touches the depths of a human being in terms of their inner self, anything that emerges out of ourselves from a genuine unguarded place, is ultimately a sacred act – no matter what religion you happen to be following, or even if you're not following a religion. It's something that is one of the essential points of a human being.
“All of these things in front of us now came out of someone's mind and heart: tables and recorders and cups: they all came out of this inspiration of transforming the material world into our inner vision and what we see inside.”
“I think in some way museums are functioning as a sort of religious or spiritual place. Maybe religion is not the right word as I always think of religion in a more political sense, as political institutions. Some of them are filled with people with very good intentions and really deep knowledge but they are fundamentally political institutions.”
“Whereas the individual in the religious sense, that's the core of the religious experience, is what happens within you, as opposed to the general congregation or general population.”
“Art museums have a special place, especially in today's world where our lives are filled with so many messages floating all around us – affecting us. Museums are a place where you can be quiet and be still and just focus on another person's dreams.”
Quotes on the Internet and Artists:
“The internet is an amazing phenomenon. ... a miracle in today's age.”
“Artists detoxify and transform things, and transmute them: transmuting led into gold.”
“Artists can take anything and turn it around.”
“The internet of today is possibly one of the most accurate representations of the social nature of human beings.”
“We're just meeting for the first time, but I'm still aware of this tremendous invisible root systems that goes out all around the world just from yourselves, let alone from your computer.”
“For the first time in human life we have an artificial technological system that can embody and represent that invisible world.”
“What digital technology is giving us is the ability to represent invisible things, not visible things.”
“The essence of digital is a code. A code is not a thing. It's not a thing like this cup or a stone or a table.”
“A code is some conceptual that has no physical existence yet it is the most powerful tool we have today; to understand our world, both in terms of our ability to model things with a computer, the ability to communicate through digital web, systems like the internet”
“It's all based on this underlying fundamentally immaterial element that is fast becoming the whole way human beings work.”
“Even our own selves are being revisualised today; unlike the mechanics of the anatomy as we used to understand it, interms of force and reaction and the hydrolics.”
“Today's model of a human being is a code, it's called DNA. And that's not coincidental. We have remapped the human being as a coded system. In terms of biological elements. That's not coincidental that it's occuring in the same age that's giving us the computer. That also functions on a code.”
“It's part of a much larger movement, to somewhere that maybe we don't understand quite where we are going, but it's very powerful.”
Youtube links:
Bill Viola, Intervallo, Venezia Biennale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EL5ggr7NNUk
Bill Viola, Sweet Light
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utYz6PjSe_4&NR
Bill Viola Interview Part 1 -- www.tokyoartbeat.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37u-Tx4XHj8
http://www.artphilosophy.co.uk/art-directory.html
