To Pause And Reflect

By Alexa Baracaia, *Video artist Bill Viola to create work for St Paul's Cathedral* - The London Paper - London, UK
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The video art pioneer will erect two giant plasma screens that will flank the cathedral's two altars

Heaven knows what Sir Christopher Wren* would think, but St Paul's Cathedral is going digital.

Two new permanent altarpieces have been commissioned for the historic building, but they will not be made from carved wood or marble. Instead, they will be giant plasma screens.

Video artist Bill Viola is to create the pair of displays, expected to flank the cathedral's High Altar and the American Memorial Chapel.

Based on the theme of Mary and the Martyrs, they will be arranged as multiple screens configured in a manner "similar to historic altarpieces", said a spokeswoman today.

Canon Martin Warner, Treasurer of St Paul's, said: "The new works are expected to add to the devotional and reflective experience of visitors to St Paul's, arresting people's attention and inviting them to pause and reflect."

Work will begin on the pieces this summer for completion in early 2011.

New York-born Viola, 58, is hailed as pioneer of video art. He has created installations and sets for the Opera National de Paris, the Guggenheim Museum and the Church of San Gallo in Venice a.o.

His emotionally charged slow-motion works are inspired by traditions within medieval and Renaissance devotional painting and deal with central themes of birth, death, love and spirituality - drawing from Buddhism, Christian mysticism and Islamic Sufism.

He said today: "If I'm successful, the final pieces will function both as aesthetic objects of contemporary art and as practical objects of traditional contemplation."

* Click to meet Sir Christopher Wren