William Kentridge

Since I started working with video, I have always been interested in stop action animation. When I was younger, I remember the first job that I ever wanted was to be a cartoonist. I was fascinated with how cartoons were made. I even had the opportunity to tour through some Disney studios to see the process taking place. This only fueled my desire to become a cartoonist. I eventually became more interested in more conceptual arts and drifted away from this.

The more I work with video, the more I want to experiment with stop action. More recently I have been particularly interested in the art of William Kentridge, a South African artist who creates extremely powerful animated films, most of which dealing with political and social themes in South Africa. He is able to use animation to send a very powerful message that would never be as successful in any other media. He as created a style of art that is very unique to him, both simple and complex at the same time. This piece Felix in Exile is a perfect example of Kentridge's style.

Kentridge's work as a whole deals with time and change. He uses charcoal, a medium that is easy to manipulate, to convey this. By constantly drawing and erasing over the same image, he is constantly leaving behind marks of the previous drawing. The change over time is clearly visible through the eraser marks. This creates a very interesting effect, as well as support the themes and statements he is making in his videos.

Now that I am coming to the end of schooling (for now), ideas for Senior Thesis have been constantly floating by. Nothing is certain at this point and I want to go into the class with a relatively open mind, but I have been thinking about ways to develop techniques I have already used in previous projects. Since I have previously worked with animation and I have been looking for that next step or inspiration to help me reach that next level, I think Kentridge might help point me in the right direction. Whether or not I do anything with it I don't know, but it is something I definitely want to experiment with at some point in time.