Africa’s No 1 Arts Bookstore and Publisher

I

In Japan in 1981 while Viola was artist­ in-residence at the Sony Corporation. The title refers to Japanese folklore, wherein things done on the first day of a new year are significant. But the tape is not to be taken literally as a dream. For Viola, its more like the aboriginal concept of dreamtime, the creation of the world. That’s why, as a whole and in its parts, Hatsu­-Yume progresses from darkness to light, stillness to motion, silence to sound, simplicity to complexity, nature to civilization. There are two interwoven themes: the dark water world of fish, and Buddhist rituals invoking the souls of dead ancestors. As in a dream, we frequently can’t tell if these wordless streams of image and sound are unfolding in realtime, slow-motion or time-lapse. A work of extravagant pictorial beauty. Hatsu-Yume represents the most painterly use of light in the history of video. Form is content: the light that lures fish to their death protects human life. At once ominous, majes­tic, mystical, and deeply spiritual, Hatsu-Yume is the work of a visionary poet of image and sound.

Author: Hatsu-Yume, English, Multimedia.

Specifications: Video, 55 mins, colour, stereo
, ISBN: 9 7890 5519 0553 .

Price (ZA) R300.00

Keywords: Bill-Viola, Bookstore, DVD, International, Performance-Art, Video and Multimedia/CD