Untitled #15

As a still taken from 'Isolde's Ascension' in the Love/Death: The Tristan Project, Bill Viola always manages to keep the suspended moment hanging on throughout his video installation work. This particular project created something quite vivid; a reversal of expectations and a slow moving and almost violent transition through the elements, culminating a kind of spiritual sequence of death.

Attached to lifes surface by the beaded thread of breath, this reading of death equates to that of 'The Piano', whereas Ada's resurrection (or ascension) remains in body and life.

Untitled #14

'The Piano', directed by Jane Campion 1993

I have to admit, I haven't even seen the film yet. My girlfriend looked at my blog last week and she told me I must see it, describing the scene whereby "Ada jumps (or falls?)
overboard with the piano attached to her leg. The shot under water of
the floating yet restrained body (umbilical cord) seems to connote a
state of suspension, between life and death. I remember reading an
article in "Screen" that was entirely devoted to this fascinating image
that carries so many meanings". Ok so I'm quoting my girlfriend, but it sounds quite impressive and whilst the film stills are ambiguous, we can only imagine the intensity of what this succession of images imply.

Untitled #13

Taken from 'Lapdogs of the Bourgeoisie' program at the Gasworks contemporary arts organisation, this particular photograph (ironically) stood apart from any other. 'Stand, I don't' takes not only the literal meaning acted out by the body, but also represents the underdog, the unheard voice and the opressed. Indeed, disguising the true identity enables a reading to be captured and embodied by many - which appears to be a familiar trait amoung most of the images posted thus far.