Lauren McWilliams- Kentridge

William Kentridge’s animation is interesting not only because of the unusual process, but in the way that his process further expresses and enhances his ideas.  His message becomes so much more powerful because of the way that the artwork is rendered.  Felix In Exile, stood out to me as a piece where the content and visual aesthetics worked dependently on one another. In this film, Kentridge deals a lot with the past and memories; as Felix observes his alter ego searching for her homeland he is drowned by memories, fear, and regret. The way that the drawings leave traces of themselves as Kentridge erases and readjusts the animation exaggerates this concept of past and present. With each new frame the previous one still has an effect on the viewer. Just as the drawings in Felix’s briefcase pile up, the layers of charcoal and erasure dominate and overwhelm the scene as well.  I feel that the success of Kentridge’s animation is a result of the way that he draws process and concept together.  His films provide commentary on subjects that are not that unusual, many artists draw upon politics and social conflict; however he portrays these issues on a different level. An artist may paint a picture that illustrates some of Kentridge’s same ideas but the paint would not contribute to the viewing experience as dramatically as Kentridge’s charcoal sequences.  Kentridge’s process alone tells a story and sends a message and this appeals to me as a very deep way to experience and create art.