I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like by Bill Viola

Bill Viola, I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like, 1986

Videotape, color, stereo sound; 89 min.

Presented by East London Experimental Film Club

Good Shepherd Studios E11 3DR

Tickets - pay what you can (suggested £7 admission / £5 concession)

Please join us for the next screening and meet-up of the East London Experimental Film Club at Good Shepherd Studios, a forum for encountering alternative cinema in all of its forms in a friendly and welcoming environment. This month, we are thrilled to be presenting a rare public screening of one of the early works of the pioneering and enormously influential contemporary artist Bill Viola, who passed away this summer. 

One of the major works in video, I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like (1986) envisions an epic quest for transcendence and self-knowledge. Viola describes this work as a "personal investigation of the inner states and connections to animal consciousness we all carry within." The title is taken from the Rig-Veda, the Sanskrit spiritual text that defines a procession through birth, consciousness, primordial existence, intuition, knowledge, rational thought, and faith, to arrive at a transcendent reality "beyond the laws of physics." Unfolding in powerful, emblematic images and allegorical passages, Viola articulates a dramatic quest for self-knowledge through an awareness of the Other, embodied here by a shamanistic vision of animal consciousness.

Structured in five parts, Il Corpo Scuro (The Dark Body), The Language of the Birds, The Night of Sense, Stunned by the Drum, and The Living Flame, the tape envisions a metaphysical journey of rational and intuitive thought, from the natural world to spiritual rituals. Viola's poetic investigation of subject and object, observing and being observed, and his search for knowledge of the self is encapsulated in an indelible visual metaphor: an image of the artist reflected in the pupil of an owl's eye.

Additional Camera/Production Assistance/Still Photographer: Kira Perov. Engineering: Tom Piglin. Produced in association with the American Film Institute, Los Angeles; The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund, a project of the WGBH New Television Workshop, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; and ZDF, Mainz, West Germany.

Event Details

Schedule:

• 7:00pm Doors Open
• 7:30pm-9:00pm Film Screening
• 9:00pm-10:00pm Post Screening Discussion and Social

Accessibility: Screening takes place in 1st floor auditorium with stair access. Accessible tickets are available--please email us at eastlondonexperimentalfilmclub@gmail.com if you have any access requirements so that we can facilitate.

FOR MORE INFO AND FUTURE SCREENINGS, FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @experimental_film_e11