The Time-Image

Abstract

he South Africa artist William Kentridge has been working for more than three decades in visual art, animation, theatre, and film. Hie was a founding member of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company in Johannesburg and Soweto from 1975-1991 and collaborated with the Handspring Puppet Company on the multimedia productions, also directed by him, including: Woyzeck on the Highveld (1982), Faustus in Africa! (1995), Ubu and the Truth Commission (1997), Monteverdi's opera II Ritorno d'Ulisse (1998), and Zeno at 4 am (2001) which have toured several continents. The latter two productions, combining actors, musicians, puppets, and projections were presented at the Visions series of New York's Lincoln Center in recent years. Solo exhibitions of the artist's work have been mounted in his native Johannesburg, several European cities, and in Asia. The first major U.S. retrospective devoted to Kentridge opened, in 2002, at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., before traveling to the New Museum of Contemporary Art in N.Y., and Houston and Los Angeles. The Marian Goodman Gallery, in New York, regularly exhibits his drawings and films. Among his well-known animated films, which use charcoal and pastel drawing, are Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris; History of the Main Complaint, Felix in Exile. Kentridge has received the prestigious Carnegie Prize and he is a frequent participant in international art shows and fairs; his films have been shown in numerous festivals and museum retrospectives. Cheryl Kaplan, a New York artist, critic, and producer of Laurie Anderson's new high-definition film for the upcoming World Expo in Japan, conducted the interview over a two-year period, completing it during the New York run of It Ritorno d'Ulisse, in 2004.