Directions: E or V train to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, or B, D, or F train to 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center. MoMA is located on 53rd Street between 5th and 6th Aves.
Assignment: Choose one of Kentridge's animations to analyze.
Your analysis must include:
-Title, year, length, medium
-Brief description of storyline
-Is this primarily a drawing or a film?
-Much of Kentridge's work in the first part of the show deals with life during and after apartheid in South Africa. More recent pieces reference George Melies and the history of film. What role do politics and/or history play in this particular work?
-How does time function in this piece? Is it sped up/slowed down? Does it expand or contract time, move forward or backward in time?
Please post your responses here as a comment.
Peter dannenbaum drawing assignment
ReplyDeletestereoscope, 1999, charcoal.
the storyline of stereoscope follows a suited man working in a plain room with a cat. He gives us this character twice, in what seems parallel rooms and in some ways parallel worlds. A mysterious blue line of what seems to be electricity begins to flow through the drawings. the blue affects the world around it and changes both what is going to happen and how the environment looks. it is transmitted both through the air and through telephone chords and conversations. the interesting this is that with the two men ones world is completely changed and enhanced by the blue lines presence whilst the others seems to be irritated by it and does not allow it into their room, even as the world outside him crumbles.
personally i see this piece as primarily a drawing. it is an interesting approach to marry these two mediums together to create a storyline. and in this case to present the viewer with both a beautiful piece of work as well as a social commentary on world around him, and in particular the effects the apartheid still have in south Africa. in this film he shows the two points of view in the post apartheid era, both of social unrest and anger and guilt. Through presenting us with these two views and then at the end emblazioning the word “forgive” across the screen he sends a clear message to the viewer that despite the fact apartheid is officially over its affects will last forever until both sides move beyond it together. For this reason the piece lasts in ones mind long after viewing.
The timeframe of this piece is interesting as it ultimately jumps around a lot, it begins very slowly and methodically. However as the scenes begin to be more violent and hectic so do the time shifts. It seems either we are watching the same minute in different places across the city or a day in a few seconds. The effect this has on the viewer is clear the treatment time almost acts as the heartbeat of the piece and as the violence erupts so does the time and therefore so do the feelings of the viewer.
Personally I think this piece is both formally and conceptually strong. The draings themselves when taken purely as drawings are beautiful and intensely emotional, whilst as ive already pointed out the concept and story is dealt with in such an interesting way that one cannot help but be immersed in it.
History of the Main Complaint, 5:50 mins, video
ReplyDeleteThis piece portrays the story of Soho Eckstein, a victim of violence during the time of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. He is lying on a bed while being attended by doctors that show intended malpractice.
To me this piece is a documentation of several drawings as they develop. Rather than seeing every frame as a drawing, I see each scene as a drawing in process up until it’s completion, where the video jumps to another scene. Some frames even work as a segment of a larger whole. In this sense, it is more of a drawing piece than a video. However, by setting these drawings up the way he did, Kentridge achieves the ability to provoke multisensorial experiences that he perhaps wouldn’t have been able to achieve with a single drawing displayed on a wall.
This particular piece deals with violence victims in South Africa after racial segregation was abolished. The dark images that appear as a result of the doctors’ practice on the victim serve as a criticism to this political approach to justice. In history, the Truth and Reconciliation Comission is portrayed as an act of justice, but Kentridge’s approach shows a body of individuals that have stuck to the old and unfair traditions. Moreover, Kentridge’s character, Soho, is a symbol of the emotional, physical, and political struggle that many South Africans faced before democracy.
Time plays a big role in this piece. Although the pace in the animation remains consistent, there are many references to a past of violence. The integration of different images within the victim’s insides serve as symbols of the individual’s history, which is also the history of the people of South Africa. The scenes on the road also depict the passing of time in a pretty straight forward way. The change of scenery depicts a change in time and the movement down the road portrays progression in time. The sound in this piece also helps with this portrayal of time, since it changes according to the different scenes and I feel like it really plays with the pace of the film.
Heather Weston
ReplyDelete"Felix in Exile" 1994
8:43 mins 35 mm animated film
5th of 8 films that complete the drawings for Kentridge's drawing series. Kentridge takes close consideration to his South African country's past and its history and the politics within it.
The film shows a man in exile who longs for another life. This life consists of the man's homeland that is portrayed through a women named Nandi (his alter ego). The man veiwes from his life in his room the new democratic aspects of his lost homeland. He looks on in despair. We see the bodies of the people fall and become landscapes within the piece, along with Nandi's body. Felix is connected through water that we see fill his small room that flows from his mirror that works as a portal to this other life.
At the end, we see Felix standing in the new landscape of Nandi. Nandi's body has created a small pound, and we are left off with Felix standing in contemplation in it.
Kentridge takes on time and space literally through the process of his technique of drawing and erasing his work in several frames that push the concept of change. His work is extremely laborious, forlorn and completely stunning.
Olivia Erlanger
ReplyDelete"Felix in Exile" 1994
9 mins 35 mm animated film
The basic story line follows a character Felix as he is isolated in his bedroom with only a typewriter, and a sink. He imagines a slew of creative, inspiring imagery. Simultaneously the story follows the plight of an African woman, and shows the death of her fellow Africans and ends in her death too.
Id say this is primarily a drawing because of the focus on formal drawing issues and does not follow the usual timing, formatting or plot of a film.
This work is very political and focuses on the strife between white and black people in South Africa. It shows the frustration that the character Felix experiences at being helpless to stop the apartheid even though he disagrees with it and it shows the helplessness of the African people.
Time is fluid in this film, it is important in the order of the slides and speed of which the drawing stills change but in terms of the plot, the film goes back and forth from a real time narration to a surreal suspension of time. It flashes through series events quickly but also slows to focus on the horrors of South African history.
Maura Guyote:
ReplyDeleteFelix in Exile. 1994; 8:43, 35mm
In this animation, we have a man sitting in an empty room while a woman surveys a landscape, drawing what she sees. Dead bodies lay everywhere as water builds up in a rectangular pool. A person turns into a rock, as if their fate has been quickly forgotten. As the man shaves and she draws, they see each other in the mirror and are connected, he isolated in a box and she in an open plain. Her work floods into his room until finally her face takes up an entire wall and he's up to his knees in water. All of the people she had been drawing morph into the landscape, invisible. The woman herself dies and also turns into landscape; as this happens, the man's room disappears and he is standing in a pool in the grassland. She is gone but has opened his world.
The political message of this piece seems to have to do with race in that the black woman drawing was a witness to these massacres while the white man sat in his room, unaware of what was happening. Her work as an artist opens his eyes to what's been happening outside of his walls, perhaps a parallel to what Kentridge himself hopes he is doing.
Time is played with like a song in this animation. It starts slowly, pacing itself with small bursts of activity, like the papers flying or red beams shooting. It builds up to a climax and leaves us subtly, slowly with the image of the man in the wading pool.