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.
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.
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