Journal
A sporadic record of what happens in William Kentridge’s studio, in video, words and images
DAY WILL BREAK MORE THAN ONCE
Annandale Galleries
Sydney
April 10 to May 29, 2024
Exhibition of new sculptures, drawings prints and film opens today.
Photos: @documentphotography
NOW OPEN
Live Editions: Jillian Ross Print
Remai Modern
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Until 11 August, 2024
For this exhibition, Remai Modern’s Connect Gallery has been transformed into a working print studio. Jillian Ross Print showcases the editioning of their latest collaboration with William Kentridge – a large-scale and highly complex photogravure series consisting of over 30 plates. This exhibition explores and celebrates the significance of Ross’s work as a collaborative printmaker in the production of the yet to be published series by this internationally renowned South African artist.
The exhibition includes recently published works by Jillian Ross Print with a focus on Kentridge’s “Studio Life” gravures series created in response to COVID lockdown, a short film by Kentridge and Wally Dion’s “Prairie Braids”.
Images:
1. Detail from “Studio Self-Portrait II (And I Alone)”, 2024
Photogravure with drypoint and hand-painted chine colle
on Hahnemühle, Natural White, 300gsm
36 x 31cm
Edition of 20
Published by Jillian Ross Print
2. Jillian Ross and William Kentridge in studio, Johannesburg, 2023
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
“We Will Make Shoes from the Sky”
Curated by Debra Simon Art Consulting
MOYNIHAN TRAIN HALL
NEW YORK
Until 14 May, 2024
Moynihan Train Hall and Empire State Development—in partnership with Amtrak—welcome a new multi-panel video animation from William Kentridge entitled “We Will Make Shoes from the Sky”. As part of the latest installation for Art at Amtrak, the cast of characters in each video are based on real people from various moments in history, including World War II and the Negritude movement of African heritage. Tributes to iconic Black leaders such as James Baldwin, Josephine Baker, Aimé and Suzanne Césaire and more are shown facing the main waiting area of Moynihan Train Hall and confront the bustle of people moving below.
The portrayed characters also form part of the cast of Kentridge’s upcoming theatrical production “The Great Yes, The Great No”. Developed for the Luma Foundation, the show will debut in Arles, France in 2024 in association with the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.
Images and video: David Plakke Media
Special thanks to Emily-Jane Kirwan and the team at @mariangoodmangallery for their help in realising this project.
OPENING TONIGHT
“Waiting To Forget Something”
Galleria Lia Rumma, Naples
March 27 - May 25, 2024
An exhibition of new drawings, sculpture and prints
Images:
1. Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio, Palermo Cash Book Drawing XII”, 2023, Watercolour, coloured pencil, digital print and collage on found paper, 52 x 76.8 cm
2. “Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio, Palermo Cash Book Drawing IV”, 2023, Indian ink, charcoal, watercolour, coloured pencil and collage on found paper, 52 x 76.8 cm
3. “Wind Runner”, 2024, Wood, fabric, paper and found object, 37 x 13.5 x 39.5 cm
4. “Procession I”, 2023, Direct Gravure and drypoint on Gampi, 20 gsm, Chine collé on Hahnemühle, Natural White 300, 60.8 x 79.1 cm, Edition of 20
WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
“SELF-PORTRAIT AS A COFFEE-POT”
An exhibition curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
at Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation, Venice
17 April — 24 November 2024
Professional preview days: 15.04 – 16.04 2024 from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Press view in the presence of the artist: 16.04 2024 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Open to the General Public: 17.04 – 24.11.2024 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
For this new exhibition at Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation in Venice, Kentridge collaborates with curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, friend and author of the foundational monograph on his work published in 1998, to premiere his new nine-episode video series, “SELF-PORTRAIT AS A COFFEE-POT”. This exhibition of thirty-minute episodes by Kentridge that were originally intended as a series for online viewing, is an experiment in embodiment and phenomenological experience in the digital age, and a reflection on what might happen in the brain and in the studio of an artist, today.
Shot in his Johannesburg studio during and in the aftermath of the 2020–2022 COVID-19 pandemic, and completed in 2023, these works will be viewed in a unique concentrated environment that partially recreates the studio where they were made. ‘Filming began in the first lockdown and the studio mimicked the closed spaces of COVID’, states Kentridge, ‘but the studio is also an enlarged head, a chamber for thoughts and reflections where all the drawings, photos and detritus on the walls become these thoughts’.
As a physical exhibition space, the same size as his studio, this installation becomes a place between a private and a public space, the studio of a solitary artist deeply immersed in self-reflection and the joyous space of childhood play and of collaboration with others.
“SELF-PORTRAIT AS A COFFEE-POT”
created and directed by William Kentridge, executive produced by Rachel Chanoff and Noah Bashevkin of THE OFFICE PERFORMING ARTS + FILM, Joslyn Barnes of LOUVERTURE FILMS and the WILLIAM KENTRIDGE
STUDIO, and edited by Walter Murch, Janus Fouché and Žana Marović.
GIVE US BACK OUR SUN
One of the beginnings [for the project] was the contrast to “Seize the Day”. “Refuse the Hour”, like “Seize the Day”, has the implicit confidence and certainty of a revolutionary dictum; but “Refuse the Hour” and “The Refusal of Time” is also a refusal of that certainty. At one stage, the project was going to be called “Three Times Table”, about three different times: Newtonian time, Einsteinian time and then time disappearing into a black hole. But as we went on, it became more and more about trying to resist the imposed order that time supposes, and referred to other refusals.
“The Refusal of Time”
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Humlebæk, Denmark
February 28 - September 1, 2024
The immersive, five channel film and kinetic sculpture installation is currently showing at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, outside Copenhagen.
Photo: Stella Olivier
Joburg Film Festival
27 February to 3 March, 2024
Included in this years Jo’burg film festival are screenings of “Drawings for Projection”, a series of eleven animated films, “Journey to the Moon” and the flip-book film “Second-hand Reading”.
“Drawings for Projection”
28 February @ 17h30 at Lesedi Theatre, Braamfontein
2 March @ 19h00 at Artistry, Blackbrick Hotel
“Journey to the Moon”
29 February @16h15 at Lesedi Theatre, Braamfontein (as part of the Short Film Package SP4)
“Second-hand Reading”
29 February @18h00 at Lesedi Theatre, Braamfontein (as part of the Short Film Package SP3)
Images:
1. Still from “Stereoscope”, 1999
2. Still from “Journey to the Moon”, 2003
3. Still from “Second-hand Reading”, 2013
“In Defence of Optimism”
On the Lure of Blank Paper
Lecture Six, Slade Lecture Series
February 21, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/21-feb-in-defence-of-optimism
“Finding the Sibyl”
On Making an Opera: A Case Study
Lecture Five, Slade Lecture Series
February 14, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/14-feb-waiting-for-the-sibyl
“Houseboy”
The Lindemann Performing Arts Center
Brown University
9 - 10 February, 2024
An adapted reading of the 1956 novel, “Houseboy” by Ferdinand Oyono, directed by William Kentridge. 120 minutes with no intermission. Both performances include post-show talks with the cast and creative team.
Tickets can be purchased here:
https://tickets.brown.edu/arts/Online/default.asp
February 9, 2024 at 7pm
February 10, 2024 at 3pm
Photo: Stella Olivier
“A Spasm of History”
Paradoxes of Colonialism: A Case Study
Lecture Four, Slade Lecture Series
February 7, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/07-feb-a-spasm-of-history
Found object figure
One of a new trio, made with Greta Goiris
Found object figure
One of a new trio, made with Greta Goiris
Found object figure
One of a new trio, made with Greta Goiris
“That Which I Do Not Remember”
On Roman History: A Case Study
Lecture Three, Slade Lecture Series
January 31, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/31-jan-that-which-i-do-not-remember
“Lapis Lazuli”
On the Weight of Words
Lecture Two, Slade Lecture Series
January 24, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/24-jan-lapis-lazuli
“That Which I Have Drawn”
On Constable and the 1913 Land Act
Lecture One, Slade Lecture Series
January 17, 2024 at 5:30 pm
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
81 High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG
The lecture is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Please note that this lecture will not be streamed live. A recording of the lecture will be posted to this page within a week of its delivery:
https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/that-which-i-have-drawn
“A Natural History of the Studio”
William Kentridge
Slade Lecture Series
University of Oxford
South School, Examination Schools
81 High Street, Oxford
17 January to 21 February, 2024
As the Slade Professor of Fine Art for 2023/4, William Kentridge will deliver a series of six lectures at Oxford University. Lectures will take place in person each Wednesday at 5:30pm, from 17 January to 21 February, 2024.
The lecture series is open for all to attend. No booking is required.
Video editor: Joshua Trappler
Paper Procession I - V (Verso), 2023
Steel, aluminium, oil paint
Dimensions variable
A series of six sculptures, made from aluminium panels, fixed to a steel armature and hand-painted in oils. These works are based on a series of small-scale paper sculptures, made from coloured and torn pages from a 19th century accounting journal from the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo.
Paper Procession I - V (Recto), 2023
Steel, aluminium, oil paint
Dimensions variable
A series of six sculptures, made from aluminium panels, fixed to a steel armature and hand-painted in oils. These works are based on a series of small-scale paper sculptures, made from coloured and torn pages from a 19th century accounting journal from the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo.
