Ablutions, 2005

Miami Beach 2014
Ablutions

James Cohan Gallery

Video/Film
Color video diptych on plasma displays mounted vertically on wall
This diptych opens with the image of two parallel streams of falling water. A female torso moves into the background of the left screen while a male torso mirrors her on the right. Both figures move slowly to the foreground and into the light, cupping and bathing their hands in the water for several minutes until they fade away into silhouettes. Viola has described this work as a kind of purification ceremony akin to those one would experience in a Japanese Zen temple.