Coming Soon:
Catherine’s Room by Bill Viola is a five-channel video installation from 2001. Viola’s video captures the sacred value of ordinary routines, inspired by the life of Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), who had visions of stigmata on her hands and whose graceful writings describe ecstatic devotion. Filmed in real time, the five videos portray the daily activities of Catherine, including meditation, prayer, writing and sleeping in quiet isolation. The seasons pass through her window, symbolizing her life stages spent in a single room. Viola’s scene asks viewers to identify how spirituality or introspection manifests below the surface of what we can observe. Catherine’s Room was recently exhibited at the Barnes Foundation.