StelArc and Bill Viola...

On tuesday, we had a presentation on two different topics that were polar opposites, StelArc and Bill Viola. StelArc is an artist who in a way somewhat scares me and makes my stomach twist with his puncturing of his skin with hooks and suspending himself in different areas. I can understand how for StelArc this may have somewhat of a religious meditative kind of effect on a person. You are pushing your body to do something you may not have know it is able to do. His whole idea of the body as a structure and everything being attached is just a material over the structure interested me even though the images of him doing it grossed me out. There are many different cultures who have been doing these kind of ritualistic things for centuries. Bill Viola on the other hand uses many different video techniques to show different elements that are in the world that we can all relate to in some way or another. For some cultures around the world the elements are important to us because they are main sources we use in our daily lives to sustain life. While watching some of Viola's videos I felt more at ease and calm with the trickling water rather than StelArc's shock and awe technique that he uses.