Bill Viola's endeavor to translate dreams, experiences and the unconscious into aesthetic worlds of image and sound runs like a common thread through his work. The associative narrative strands, which are based on existential questions, unfold around the opposing pairs of birth and death, reality and virtuality. Viola's work draws on both Christianity and Zen Buddhism, which he himself practiced during a stay in Japan. Viola interweaves his deep spirituality with autobiographical elements, such as his own near-death experience by drowning, to create multi-layered works.
In The Passing (1991), Viola contrasts and interweaves images of death and birth with dream sequences and memories. The calm breaths of a sleeping man, Viola himself, and the heavy breathing of his dying mother rhythmize the sequences. Viola shows life as a transition from birth to death, as a continuation of generations.
