Shadows of Animation

     A South African Artist named William Kentridge, has developed his art that involves various mediums within his work. These mediums range from printmaking, collages, charcoal, graphite, and ink. What all of these mediums however have in common, is that they involve the use of movement and animation. The artwork Kentridge has made focuses on movement and animation in order to interact with his viewers; he interacts with his viewers by questioning their world on where they live in today, and how they see it in their eyes. 

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    In a recent exhibition he has created, In Praise of Shadow, he created several animations and installations that involve quick and precise drawings that give the viewers straight to the point; all of his drawings, animations and installations are meant to be imaginative towards ideas, as well as sending context towards his viewers. Some of these artworks that Kentridge has made involve several different types of arrangements, depending on what kind of message each one seeks to give. Other than his work being presented in the exhibit, his work can also be viewed as mixed media because some artwork also involves video recording within his charcoal animation drawings. 

    One work that was well known In the Praise of Shadows exhibition was called The Refusal of time. The Refusal of time was a series of animation assemblages that lasted thirty minutes. The duration of the film involves a recollection of his hometown of Johannesburg located in South Africa. Other than involving the origins of South Africa, he has mixed those ideas with the prehistory of relativity; this idea was fueled with the conversation he has had with his colleague in order to see science in the nineteenth century come back to life. The animations not only involved his charcoal drawings, but a collaboration of live performers within the film as well in order to create multiple screens within his installation. These multiple projected screens represent the time periods within Johannesburg. It was rather interesting that Kentridge has managed to collaborate of these elements to emphasize time and space. Time was the beneficial part of his work since animation revolves around it as well as its ideas in frames per second.

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    To solidify his understanding towards his mediums, his focus through his collection of artwork involves political and real life scenarios. Being a child that has been raised in South Africa, Kentridge had enough background living in the country in order to relay some of his ideas and philosophies through his artwork. As an artist, Kentridge tries to have his viewers have a good understanding of what the world could be, and a good understanding of the politics that happen in South Africa as well as the world in general. The city that he would be born in would be an animation that comes back to life.