William Kentridge

The Völklingen Ironworks flooded in red light
Copyright: Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte | Oliver Dietze

Kentridge

Kentridge
Copyright: Norbert Miguletz

born 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa
lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa

Web presence

Website: https://www.kentridge.studio/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/williamkentridgestudio/

Works

Mine

Date
1991

Material 
Charcoal on paper, animated Video, 16mm, 5:56min

Description

William Kentridge makes short animation films from large-scale drawings in charcoal and pastel on paper. The film Mine is set in the devastated landscape south of Johannesburg where derelict mines and factories, mine dumps and slime dams have created a terrain of nostalgia and loss. Kentridge's repeated erasure and redrawing, which leave marks without completely transforming the image, together with the jerky movement of the animation, operate in parallel with his depiction of human processes, both physical and political, enacted on the landscape. Mine was made from eighteen drawings and is set to Dvorak's Cello Concerto in B minor, Opus 104. In it, Kentridge develops the analogy between landscape and mind. A journey into the mines provides a visual representation of a journey into the conscience of Kentridge's invented character, Soho Eckstein, the White South African property owner who exploits the resources of land and Black human labour which are under his domain.

Exhibitions