Three Women is part of the Transfigurations series, a group of works that reflect on the passage of time and the process by which a person’s inner being is transformed. The Sufi mystic Ibn al’ Arabi described life as an endless journey when he said, “The Self is an ocean without a shore. Gazing upon it has no beginning or end, in this world and the next.” Three Women expresses this profound vision of the eternal nature of human life.

In the dim, ghostly grey of a darkened space, a mother and her two daughters slowly approach an invisible boundary. They pass through a wall of water at the threshold between life and death and move into the light, transforming into living beings of flesh and blood. Soon the mother recognizes that it is time for her to return, and eventually her children slowly follow, each tempted to have one more look at the world of light before disappearing into the shimmering, gray mists of time.

Bill Viola is internationally recognised as one of today’s leading artists. He has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content and historical reach.

DATE & TIME
5-16 September 2020

Wednesday–Saturday 12noon–6pm
Late Opening Friday to 8pm
Sunday 1pm–6pm
Monday–Tuesday Closed

VENUE
Festival Gallery