Bill Viola is an artist that has had a large influence on my work. Where I am interested in the idea of nature as a spiritual experience, Viola’s works explore the limits of human perception and take on a quality of religious transcendence. His use of the fundamental elements of earth, air, fire and water in his work Martyrs was fascinating to me, to see the way in which we can translate that which is ordinary into higher spiritual significance, simply through experiencing it. This work was a video installation displayed in St Pauls Cathedral, that consisted of four screens, each showing a participant being subjected to the different elements of nature. The work alluded to religious experience, the four screens becoming a contemporary version of the traditional wooden panels of an altarpiece.
When considering my own work, I have kept in mind this idea of the value of experience. I want to merge the ideas of religious experience and experiences of the natural world.
Stills from Martyrs (earth, air, fire, water), Bill Viola, 2014