WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
What struck me most about Kentridge's work was the sense of organised chaos with conceptual inputs coming from all over and this chaos could be seen through the work, with varying languages written all over the paintings and the contrast of music, dance, costume and other references in the video pieces. I find this exciting as it reflects my own confused way of working, as I have a inner (and outer) chaos with my ideas. However despite the excess of inputs, I felt the work was read-able, the chaos was not a problem, far from it, instead it was part of the success. Why? because it boosted the works enjoyment, the work was hard to read, so watching it felt like a puzzle. The video downstairs 'notes towards a model opera' was particularly strong for this, part inspired by Madame Mao's eight model revolutionary operas which involve jingoistic representations of military victories, martial arts and ballet, and even include peculiar skills of learning to throw a hand grenade. The dancing seems to conflict itself, dancers in culturally revolutionary uniform, wealding guns like limbs, the dance a mixture of south African choreography and classic ballet. Not even the background to the piece feels constant, as it presented as a notebook with pages being torn out and flipped continuously. My last video piece from foundation, was also chaotic like this, with many different contextual references running through it, i tried to explain them all, but ended up realising this was self-defeating so left it be. My question is, with complex but also visually exciting work, how does knowing the context change the viewers perception, is important where all of the references came from. However saying this... I felt Kentridge's work was fairly easy to read in a general sense, easy to grasp the basic idea, is the basic idea all that matters? No?
The work has huge political and social groundings, referencing many humanitarian issues from past and present, work grounded in things of this nature, for me, can either be very powerful or not at all. This work was powerful. The dunce hats and cardboard covered boards bearing slogans is referencing the self- denunciatory rituals that many Chinese academics were forced to endure under Mao, however the implicit approach works here, rather than something very obvious.The humiliated professor is part goya etching, part dadaist, part contemporary African. Often politically driven work, is only made by those who are victims of it in some way, Kentridge grew up in south Africa through the apartheid,, however being jewish he was more of a bystander to it all, a watcher, I find this interesting, of course he was still affected by it, but he himself was not a victim, perhaps this is why he has has softer approach in his work.
'More sweetly play the dance' was a danse macabre, coming from the medieval notion of dancing as means of starving off death. I like this powerful subversion of dance, maybe when we dance we are just fighting off death, keeping ourselves occupied, so we cannot think of it, dancing is supposed to make people happy. Cleverly this medieval link is so relevant today, making us think of all the refugees fleeing warlord. A sombre dance, they are also dancing to fight off death. Then there is links to the 'existential solitude of the walker' and with 'social solitude', lines of people walking in single file from one country to another, from one life to an unknown future. The work releases a huge sense of guilt in the viewer (for some viewers), here we are sat on chairs enjoying the music enjoy this 'dance', this dance that is painful for the performers( metaphorically) . There are priests guiding patients who cling to sketched saline solutions barely keeping them alive, they are weak and frail, and we are sat there from the comfort of our chairs enjoying it.
Music plays an important role in the mood of the piece, the music both celebratory and wailing to fit the tones of the piece, celebration of the people, but showing the pain. The music is still empowering though, as sad music would simply mock, music transforms it into an epic. In my own practise although i work with video, sound is very foreign to me, I use sound, but comes secondary to moving image, however i feel i should try exploring sound more and its importance, as mood is very important to my work, the human condition is something felt through all senses.
( The firework display today an example of music power, the jolly music suddenly made the fireworks seem possibly scary as if something was about to go wrong, whereas the more moody 'epic' music made everything seem like a circus act)
On the technical side, I liked the complex nature of the videos, making it very much something to be experienced rather than watched, with the multiple screens that surrounded the viewer and also the physical presence of the work, especially with 'more sweetly play the dance', as the whole video was full of physical movement, bringing the animated video very much into the real world, when the figures reached the final screen it felt as though they would march right out and towards you, in both in friendly and threatening way. Kentridge's work has presence in a way i have barely seen from video work before.
Frith Street Gallery
FIONNA BANNER (Font)
Sadie Coles
UGO RONDINONE (clouds + mountains + waterfalls)
RICHARD T.WALKER (everything failing to become something)
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