William Kentridges animated charcoal drawings depict struggle, time, change, and thought. These common themes are woven around issues of political and social injustice, revolution, and conflicting ideologies pertaining to his home in South Africa. In his film Automatic Writing, Kentridge portrays a world where writing and drawing merge. The total message represented in film is very difficult to understand, however some inferences can be made. The animation begins as a jumble of words, almost too ambiguous to read. The phrases that clearly standout from the jumble say "automatic writing", "maximum of anxiety", "entrance", "silence", "pleasure", and numbers such as "2,5,6". One phrase Kentridge focuses on is, "the longest route to his desire from A to B". These words and phrases overlap one another, but through the use of his erasing and re-drawing Kentridge is able to evolve the animation into more then just words. Erasure works in his videos because it shows the viewer a change in time, thought, feeling, and movement. This can be observed when Kentridge transforms and merges the phrases and lines into the setting and a man and woman figure. Perhaps Kentridges ambiguity is a way of depicting the inner thoughts and emotions of the man and woman. The perspective of his drawings face down towards the settings and the figures; perhaps the viewer acts as the oppressor? I am not entirely sure of Kentridge's exact point, however emotional struggle is definitely felt in Automatic Writing.
The first thing that stood out right away in Automatic Writing was the line quality. Charcoal seems very difficult to erase and clean up but Kentridge makes it work by layering lines of charcoal and erasing parts of it bit by bit to show motion. His erase marks became one with the drawing and even the slight image left behind was incorporated in the whole piece. It was impressive to watch how fluid his marks were and how a messy sketch turned into something more refined. His figures were a bit stylized and i liked how they were not perfectly rendered and every mark he made became part of the drawing. I also noticed how detailed the living room scene was and when it appeared to be erased away it revealed the underlying structure of the room and chairs in it. I also liked the high contrast of the marks and the composition of every scene, whether it was of off centered figures, or the buildings that were crisply drawn in the foreground and blurred in the background. It was interesting how the words were incorporated into the drawing and how they were not quite legible yet still implied meaning to the drawing. The overall point and message of the drawing is still a little unclear to me but it was fascinating to watch.
The works that I viewed showed a great sadness and hopelessness. Part of this was due to the music, but the way his animation flowed made it more somber. This is very prominent in Sobriety, obesity, and Getting Old. I liked the different ways he used erasure. In some animations erasure was used to portray movement. I thought that the faded erased images served as after images so you could really follow the line of the object that was moving. He also used erasure to portray the moving of the light sources. By moving the light in the background, Kentridge creates different moods and movements of the characters without actually changing them. This is also a very interesting way of using the negative space. He also uses erasure to depict the actual forms while the drawing becomes the background. Negative and positive space are sort of flipped and the drawing takes on another quality. In History of the Main Complaint, he uses perspective to show a long, never ending road n the first scene that a paper blows down. This depicts the barren city streets. I found his work very powerful in providing an insight into human life and the changing society.
William Kentridge is notorious for his animated films using drawings to create an abstract and interesting videos. He erases objects in the videos to make them more captivating and unique. The videos are cool because they are so life-like, but all drawn. Kentridge videos and films are highly influenced by political and social issues, he also randomly includes his self-portrait in his movies. Kentridge goes through a unique process to produce his films. He introduced succesive charcoal drawings , which are always stay on one sheet of paper. Kentridge just keeps tracing on his previous drawings, building up his videos with past actions on one sheet. Kentridge is now one of South America's best artists, he has produced extraordinary films that are meaningful with just charcoal. In his films, he has two major characters, Soho Eckstein and Felix Teitlebaum, both of them represent various aspects of emotional and political struggle. He has reasons why he never uses a new sheet of paper, which is quite interesting. He never used a new sheet of paper because he believed that one should paint over the old, and keep changing things until it is correct, and stick with the same sheet, no matter how many mistakes, and keep correcting until things finally come together. This is a metaphor for the struggles and lifestyles of people who lived in South Africa at the time. Kentridge is known for his films like " Felix in Exile", " Monument", "Johannesburg: 2nd Greatest City after Paris", and many more. Kentridge quotes," My drawings don't start with a 'beautiful mark', It has to be a mark of something out there in the world. It doesn't have to be an accurate drawing, but it has to stand for an observation, not something that is abstract, like an emotion." I personally think it is incredible how Kentridge uses charcoal and a handful of some paints to create such a moving and meaningful piece of artwork, that represents so much in South African culture and society.
William Kentridges animated charcoal drawings depict struggle, time, change, and thought. These common themes are woven around issues of political and social injustice, revolution, and conflicting ideologies pertaining to his home in South Africa. In his film Automatic Writing, Kentridge portrays a world where writing and drawing merge. The total message represented in film is very difficult to understand, however some inferences can be made. The animation begins as a jumble of words, almost too ambiguous to read. The phrases that clearly standout from the jumble say "automatic writing", "maximum of anxiety", "entrance", "silence", "pleasure", and numbers such as "2,5,6". One phrase Kentridge focuses on is, "the longest route to his desire from A to B". These words and phrases overlap one another, but through the use of his erasing and re-drawing Kentridge is able to evolve the animation into more then just words. Erasure works in his videos because it shows the viewer a change in time, thought, feeling, and movement. This can be observed when Kentridge transforms and merges the phrases and lines into the setting and a man and woman figure. Perhaps Kentridges ambiguity is a way of depicting the inner thoughts and emotions of the man and woman. The perspective of his drawings face down towards the settings and the figures; perhaps the viewer acts as the oppressor? I am not entirely sure of Kentridge's exact point, however emotional struggle is definitely felt in Automatic Writing.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that stood out right away in Automatic Writing was the line quality. Charcoal seems very difficult to erase and clean up but Kentridge makes it work by layering lines of charcoal and erasing parts of it bit by bit to show motion. His erase marks became one with the drawing and even the slight image left behind was incorporated in the whole piece. It was impressive to watch how fluid his marks were and how a messy sketch turned into something more refined. His figures were a bit stylized and i liked how they were not perfectly rendered and every mark he made became part of the drawing. I also noticed how detailed the living room scene was and when it appeared to be erased away it revealed the underlying structure of the room and chairs in it. I also liked the high contrast of the marks and the composition of every scene, whether it was of off centered figures, or the buildings that were crisply drawn in the foreground and blurred in the background. It was interesting how the words were incorporated into the drawing and how they were not quite legible yet still implied meaning to the drawing. The overall point and message of the drawing is still a little unclear to me but it was fascinating to watch.
ReplyDeleteThe works that I viewed showed a great sadness and hopelessness. Part of this was due to the music, but the way his animation flowed made it more somber. This is very prominent in Sobriety, obesity, and Getting Old. I liked the different ways he used erasure. In some animations erasure was used to portray movement. I thought that the faded erased images served as after images so you could really follow the line of the object that was moving. He also used erasure to portray the moving of the light sources. By moving the light in the background, Kentridge creates different moods and movements of the characters without actually changing them. This is also a very interesting way of using the negative space. He also uses erasure to depict the actual forms while the drawing becomes the background. Negative and positive space are sort of flipped and the drawing takes on another quality. In History of the Main Complaint, he uses perspective to show a long, never ending road n the first scene that a paper blows down. This depicts the barren city streets. I found his work very powerful in providing an insight into human life and the changing society.
ReplyDeleteWilliam Kentridge is notorious for his animated films using drawings to create an abstract and interesting videos. He erases objects in the videos to make them more captivating and unique. The videos are cool because they are so life-like, but all drawn. Kentridge videos and films are highly influenced by political and social issues, he also randomly includes his self-portrait in his movies. Kentridge goes through a unique process to produce his films. He introduced succesive charcoal drawings , which are always stay on one sheet of paper. Kentridge just keeps tracing on his previous drawings, building up his videos with past actions on one sheet. Kentridge is now one of South America's best artists, he has produced extraordinary films that are meaningful with just charcoal. In his films, he has two major characters, Soho Eckstein and Felix Teitlebaum, both of them represent various aspects of emotional and political struggle. He has reasons why he never uses a new sheet of paper, which is quite interesting. He never used a new sheet of paper because he believed that one should paint over the old, and keep changing things until it is correct, and stick with the same sheet, no matter how many mistakes, and keep correcting until things finally come together. This is a metaphor for the struggles and lifestyles of people who lived in South Africa at the time. Kentridge is known for his films like " Felix in Exile", " Monument", "Johannesburg: 2nd Greatest City after Paris", and many more. Kentridge quotes," My drawings don't start with a 'beautiful mark', It has to be a mark of something out there in the world. It doesn't have to be an accurate drawing, but it has to stand for an observation, not something that is abstract, like an emotion." I personally think it is incredible how Kentridge uses charcoal and a handful of some paints to create such a moving and meaningful piece of artwork, that represents so much in South African culture and society.
ReplyDelete