Between the Lens and the Eyepiece
If we were in the belly of the camera, the empty stage is the working space for the optics of the camera. Where the three dimensional world is recreated on a smaller scale, in a flattened form. The tradition of baroque flat scenery, arranged in a perspective from the proscenium to the back of the stage put me in mind of the layers in a bellows of an old camera – also reminded me of the flattening of planes of distance one sees in binoculars – a sort of quantum perspective, depth given by a series of jumps of flat planes.
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+ Credits
Black Box / Chambre Noire
2005
Animated 35 mm film transferred to video, projected front and back onto model theater with drawings and mechanical puppets
Musical composition
Philip Miller
Mechanical Design
Jonas Lundquist
Singers
Alfred Makgalemele, Vevangua Muuondjo
Musical recordings in Namibia
Minette Mans, Philip Miller
Programming for mechanical objects
Ronald Halgren
Editing
Catherine Meyburgh
Lighting
Ann-Charlotte Fogelström
Black Box / Chambre Noire was co-commissioned by Deutsche Bank and Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the exhibition William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire at Deutsche Guggenheim
October 29, 2005 – January 15, 2006
Making


I’m playing with three sets of associations in Black Box. The first is the black box of the theater. The installation consists of a model of a theater, which houses projections and characters. The characters are small automatons—mechanized (and not necessarily anthropomorphic) objects that perform, together with the projections, within the theater space. So the first reference is to the “black box” of the performance realm.
The second association of the black box is the chambre noir—the central chamber of a camera between the lens and the eyepiece, into which light enters and where a kind of meaning is created. Here, the infinite possibilities of the outside world come in, but a single image is chosen, fixed upon the plane.
The third reference is the voice data recorder that is used to trace the last moments before an airline disaster. And the disaster I will be referring to—although I will not necessarily describe it nor didactically enumerate its stages—is the German massacre of the Herero people in Southwest Africa from 1903 to 1907.
Black Box / Chambre Noire
Film installation with model theatre, drawings, mechanical puppets and projections
While the table-top size of the miniature theatre is many times smaller than a real theatre it is also, in shape, similar to but several times larger than a box camera. One of the associations of Black Box is the chambre noire, the inside of a camera, the space between the lens and the eyepiece or film plane. The space where the light is inverted, captured. One image is separated and held through the strange optical, mechanical, chemical photographic process. The stage becomes camera, the images shown or played out like a record of photographs of the world outside the camera (or theatre).
Drawings
Sarastro, the high priest in Mozart’s Magic Flute guides the hero of the opera in his journey towards wisdom. As a symbol of the enlightenment, Sarastro combines all knowledge with all power. In the two hundred and fifteen years since Mozart wrote the opera we have come to realise what a toxic mixture this is: the combination of certainty and a monopoly of violence. The opera production looks at the enlightenment in its optimistic phase. Black Box/Chambre Noire examines one of its calamitous trajectories.






- Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Upside-down Tree)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III058 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Figures with Sticks)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil, Torn paper and Collage on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw026 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Spinning Disc)2005Charcoal on found pages
kent.blk box.III035 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Measured Skull, Faded)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III038 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Hat with Tassel)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III039 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Wuste)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III041 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Interior)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III042 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Lines)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III043 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Berlin)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III044 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Lights)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III045 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Skull with Hat)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III048 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Wenig Vegetation)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III052 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Mine Dump II)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III061 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Calibration)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III063 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Tree)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III059 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Mine Dump)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III060 - Drawings for Black Box / Chambre Noire2005Charcoal on paper47 x 67.4 cm each
5 kent.blk box.III056 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Corpses in Tree)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III062 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Three Lights)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paperEdition of
kent.blk box.III053
Prints
Exhibitions
"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_1"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_10"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_11"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_12"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_13"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_14"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_15"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_16"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_17"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_18"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_19"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_2"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_20"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_21"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_22"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_23"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_24"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_3"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_4"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_5"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_6"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_7"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_8"William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire", Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, Berlin, Germany, October 2005
Photo: Mathias Schormann
William Kentridge_Black Box_Artworks_Exhibitions_Scroll_9
More
- Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Panoramic Landscape)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw021 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (List)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on paper
13f_kent.blk box.IV.draw035 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Curtain)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
3_kent.blk box.V.draw031 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Curtain)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
4a_kent.blk box.V.draw032 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Curtain)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
4b_kent.blk box.V.draw033 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Ten Heads)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Chalk on paper
2_kent.blk box.IV.draw023 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Bird on Globe)2005Charcoal on paper
13c_kent.blk box.IV.draw032 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Fragments)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Collage on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III033 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Walfisch Bai)2005Charcoal on found paper collage
6_kent.blk box.III034 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Portrait of Man)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III036 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Measured Skull)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III037 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Skull)2005Charcoal on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III046 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Indian Rhino)2005Charcoal on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III050 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Black Rhino)2005Charcoal, Chalk and Collage on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III051 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Vernnaft)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Collage on found paper
6_kent.blk box.III054 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Tondo II)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Collage on paper119 cm diameter
10b_kent.blk box.IV.draw025 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Rhino)2005Charcoal on paper
13e_kent.blk box.IV.draw034 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire Black Box (Trauerarbeit)2005Charcoal, Chalk and Collage on paper50 x 64.5 cm
14_kent.draw.160 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Extra-Blatt der Deutsch-Südwesafrikanischen Zeitung)2007Charcoal, Pastel and Collage on paper
1 Kentridge- stage rhino - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Erklärung)2005Charcoal on paper
6_kent.blk box.III055 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Figure in Suit)2005Charcoal, Chalk and Collage on paper
15_kent.draw.161 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Three Figures)2005Charcoal, Chalk and Collage on paper
16_kent.draw.162 - Trauerarbeit2005Etching32.5 x 25 cmEdition of 25
Trauerarbeit - Black Box/Chambre Noire2005Animated 35 mm film transferred to video, model theater with drawings (charcoal, pastel, collage, and coloured pencil on paper) and mechanical puppets
kent.blk box.IV005 - Drawing for Black Box/Chambre Noire (Landscape with Pulleys)2005Charcoal and coloured pencil on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw022 - Drawing for Black Box/Chambre Noire (Tondo)2005Charcoal and red pencil on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw024 - Drawing for Black Box/Chambre Noire (Landscape with Mine Dump)2005Charcoal on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw030 - Drawing for Black Box/Chambre Noire (Skull in Landscape)2005Charcoal on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw031 - Drawing for Black Box/Chambre Noire (Shower)2005Charcoal on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw033 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Rhino)2005Pastel and Chalk on black paper
z_kent_flute_A_012 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Upside-down Tree)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III058 - Copper Notes - State 112005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_012 - Copper Notes - State 102005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_011 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Figures with Sticks)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil, Torn paper and Collage on paper
kent.blk box.IV.draw026 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Spinning Disc)2005Charcoal on found pages
kent.blk box.III035 - Copper Notes - State 92005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_010 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Measured Skull, Faded)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III038 - Copper Notes - State 82005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_009 - Copper Notes - State 72005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
2h_kent_states_008 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Hat with Tassel)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III039 - Copper Notes - State 62005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_007 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Wuste)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III041 - Copper Notes - State 52005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of 7
kent_states_006 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Interior)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III042 - Copper Notes - State 42005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_005 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Lines)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III043 - Copper Notes - State 32005Drypoint, Engraving and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_004 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Berlin)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III044 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Lights)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III045 - Copper Notes - State 22005Drypoint and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_003 - Copper Notes - State 12005Drypoint and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_002 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Skull with Hat)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III048 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Wenig Vegetation)2005Charcoal, Coloured pencil and Collage on found paper
kent.blk box.III052 - Copper Notes - State 02005Drypoint and Burnishing on Hahnemühle paper28.5 x 33 cmEdition of
kent_states_001 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Mine Dump II)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III061 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Calibration)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III063 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Tree)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III059 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Mine Dump)2005Charcoal on found paper
kent.blk box.III060 - Drawings for Black Box / Chambre Noire2005Charcoal on paper47 x 67.4 cm each
5 kent.blk box.III056 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Corpses in Tree)2005Charcoal and Coloured pencil on found paper
kent.blk box.III062 - Drawing for Black Box / Chambre Noire (Three Lights)2005Charcoal and Collage on found paperEdition of
kent.blk box.III053
Credits: Black Box / Chambre Noire
2005
Animated 35 mm film transferred to video, projected front and back onto model theater with drawings and mechanical puppets
Musical composition
Philip Miller
Mechanical Design
Jonas Lundquist
Singers
Alfred Makgalemele, Vevangua Muuondjo
Musical recordings in Namibia
Minette Mans, Philip Miller
Programming for mechanical objects
Ronald Halgren
Editing
Catherine Meyburgh
Lighting
Ann-Charlotte Fogelström
Black Box / Chambre Noire was co-commissioned by Deutsche Bank and Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the exhibition William Kentridge: Black Box / Chambre Noire at Deutsche Guggenheim
October 29, 2005 – January 15, 2006