Sweet Light

Viola has referred to Sweet Light and other tapes from this period as “songs”—personal, lyrical statements. Articulated through precise editing, Sweet Light incorporates symbolic imagery, changes of scale, and a radically mobile camera suggesting shifting points of view. The tape is grounded in common references to illumination—incandescent lamplight, daylight, flashlight, and firelight—that serve as metaphors for artistic inspiration. Viola’s access to sound facilities at the ZBS studio in Fort Edward, New York and to video post-production at the TV Lab at WNET-New York allowed him to exercise precise and rhythmic flexibility in editing this tape.

This title is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 1.