How Time is expressed in Bill Viola’s ‘Room for St John of the Cross Essay

This film and sound inst all toldation by Bill Viola, Room for St John of the scotch, speaks of the concept of time in a number of different ways. It consists of a black cubicle in the centre of a darkened space. A small window reveals the interior of the cadre which is a softly illume space containing only a table with a pitcher, a body of water glass and a video monitor. Projected behind the cell is a moving image of mountains with act clouds accompanied by the sounds of a storm. A voice whispers in Spanish some of St Johns poetry.St John, a poet and mystic was imprisoned for 9 months in 1577 in a cell so small he could not stand within it. During his internment he wrote mystical poetry concerned with transcending events and barriers in search of the countersign of God, poetry that has been handed down to us in the modern day, so his poetry could be said to transcend time. The cell a lead dimensional object, delivers the fourth dimension, that of time, 9 months of his lif e-time. This is the period a child spends in the womb, curled and unable to stand, before birth. The mountains would perhaps represent eternity as they are so unchanging.The moving clouds show that time is passing, but the storm may signify funny house of the earliest period of creation. The clouds could also represent an ability to rise above the events of each day which included regular(a) beatings. The water and the light within the cell could represent the eternal life giving power of God, which St John found each day. God move upon the face of the waters freshly each day, creating order out of the chaos in which he found his life to be. In The Dark shadow which may be one of the poems composed during this period he wroteall things ceased I went out from myself, leaving my cares. (as translated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez,) Despite severe oppression, deprivations and physiological difficulties, he was in ecstasy and time was forgotten.Works CitedElectronic So urces Kavanaugh K, an d Rodriguez, O. ( translators) Carmelite. com Our Saints, The Collected Works of St John of the Cross http//www. carmelite. com/saints/john/works/cn_6. q sixth February 2008 Room for St John of the Cross 1983 http//www. sfmoma. org/espace/viola/BV05. html 6th February 2008