Critical Writing Index

Adapting Sufism to Video Art: Bill Viola and the Sacred

by Ziad Elmarsafy

Alif, 2008, no. 28, pp. 127-149

The author analyzes Bill Viola's usage of religious iconography and themes, specifically those prevalent in Sufism, as an overarching theme in the majority of his work and how he uses these concepts to study individualism, the human body and other aspects of the human condition.

ITEM 2008.186 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

The Passing – Bill Viola

Nantes Triptych – Bill Viola

Going Forth by Day – Bill Viola

I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like – Bill Viola

The Space Between the Teeth – Bill Viola

Chott El-Djerid – Bill Viola

The Messenger – Bill Viola

The Fall into Paradise – Bill Viola

The Veiling – Bill Viola

To Pray without Ceasing – Bill Viola

He Weeps for You – Bill Viola

Slowly Turning Narrative – Bill Viola

The Sleepers – Bill Viola

Ocean without a Shore – Bill Viola