BLAKE VIOLA

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Blake Viola
Writer, Multimedia artist, Performer.

Photo from Bill Viola's "Ocean Without a Shore" 2007 Video/sound installation.
Performer: Blake Viola | Installation view, Church of San Gallo, Venice | Photo: Thierry Bal.

Based in Long Beach, California, where he grew up, Blake attended The Evergreen State College in Washington graduating in 2010 with a Bachelors of Arts Degree, in visual art, mythology and religion, and creative writing.  Blake Viola's work and my writings are a direct interaction with concepts and images from an ongoing study into the occult, shamanism, Vodou, and various ancient cultures, especially the Greeks. I have been extremely inspired by the physicality and raw nature of "Primitive" Art, from over modeled skulls of New Guinea, to Nkisi objects of the Congo.  The goal of my work has always been to create powerful objects and images that come from the space outside of the ego and conscious realms in order to realize deeper inner essences greater than the self, to actuate them and to allow others to feel the place from whence they came, and hopefully, to awaken a similar space within their own bodies.  In a sense my work is attempting to follow the ancient practice of embodying principles, or spirits into matter, to create a domain, a flesh for them to peer out and hopefully interact with the world.  At the same time, this is an attempt to bring the viewers closer to their world.