William Kentridge Response

Week 4 Day 1: William Kentridge Response

Today in class we watch a video documentary about William Kentridge and his work. Since I had just done research on him I was actually excited to learn even more. Late in the film he made the comment that while younger and in his studies Kentridge had a difficult time deciding between Film, Drawing, and performance or Theater. As he result he never chose one over the others. Since he still flips back and fourth between all three, he is constantly seeing things in new perspectives and it aids in what ever project he is in. Theater could inspire a drawing that later relates in one of his films. Whatever the case you will often see Kentridge intertwine film, drawing, and theater within each other.

I was fascinated with how Kentridge created his animations. By taking one drawing he alters it many times instead of redrawing the same drawing on different pages similar to cell animation. Taking one drawing he captures it on film, then erases and redraws on the same page the next frame in his animation. Once finished he again captures it on film and starts the process again. Although the end product isn't as clean as cell drawing I find the rough, loose gestural drawing conveys his messages better then clean cell animation would. His animations are rather dark and dismal, creating emotions in me of guilt or shame and confusion. If he used many different pages in his animation instead of the 20 some odd he uses and reuses I believe the general feel of his animation would be different. Plus the media of his choice, charcoal, aids in his fluid loose gestural quick drawings. During the video Kentridge made the comment that if he gets caught up in a frame and trying to make it a nice drawing, he intentionally will rough it up. Combining his type of drawings, his media and his process you are left with an animation that is personally his. 100% his style and message. Without a doubt William Kentridge is leaving his mark in the 21st century.