William Kentridge was born in Johannesburg in 1955. His animated films, or 'drawings for projection', explore personal and social conflicts in the context of both apartheid and post-apartheid landscapes, using mainly pastel and charcoal drawings on paper, which he changes and sets in motion by rubbing out and drawing over things. Originally a fine art painter, draughtsman and engraver, Kentridge turned his attention to animation in the late 1980s through his increasing interest in time; its passing, the traces it leaves, the memory that events, beings and objects leave when we close our eyes on the past. What technique besides frame-by-frame animation could better render an account of this phenomenon?
'All of my work is about Johannesburg in one form or another.thematically I suppose I work with what's in the air, which is to say a mixture of personal questions and the broader social questions. Questions this year, questions last year, responsibility, retribution, recrimination, before issues of what histories are hidden in the landscape. Often they're fairly broad questions but generally they arrive through quite a personal or particular starting point.' Interview with William Kentridge (www.onepeople.com/archive/html/kentrintv.html)
Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris
1989, 8 mins, Beta SP
Monument
1990, 3 mins, Beta SP
Mine
1991, 6 mins, Beta SP
Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old
1991, 8:20 mins, Beta SP
Felix in Exile
1994, 9 mins, Beta SP
History of the Main Complaint
1996, 6 mins, Beta SP
Weighing.and Wanting
1997, 6:20 mins, Beta SP
Stereoscope
1999, 8:20 mins, Beta SP
Memo
1994, 3 mins, Beta SP
Hotel
1998, 8 mins, Beta SP
Ubu Tells the Truth
1997, 8 mins, Beta SP
Shadow Procession
1997, 7 mins, Beta SP
(total running time: 81 mins)
