Videoworks by Bill Viola, Robert Cahen and Daniel Reeves Asia has a strong allure for Western artists. While intimate knowledge of the subject remains elusive, the surface images ripple with exoticism. The challenge then is to rise above the mystification, to strip away the orientalisms. Daniel Reeves peers beneath the surface of India by plumbing its spiritual base. In Sabda (1984, 14:55 mins), Reeves uses graceful digital effects to echo the transience of life as imagined in ancient Bhakti poetry. An elephant walking in chains, a hazy, immaterial figure working in a distant field: this exquisite contemplation evokes both the beauty and despair of India. Robert Cahen's Hong Kong Song (1989, 21 mins) employs unique rippling techniques to depict the urban delirium of this megalopolis. The febrile nature of Hong Kong is further amplified by an eerie wash of color and the hectic sounds of the daily bustle. The teeming harbor, the crowded avenues, all become a spasm of sensual activity within Cahen's gaze. A monumental work, Bill Viola's Hatsu Yume (First Dream) (1981, 56 mins) explores light and darkness as metaphors for the ethereal state of consciousness. Japan's lush landscape supplies the bounty for Viola's quest: an unworldly bamboo forest, abstracted koi suspended in a pond, the nocturnal harshness of Tokyo. Viola's play of light and shadow across these stunning images reflects not only a state of being, but an odd estrangement of the physical world. --Steve Seid