May 142011
 

Here’s a brilliant PBS video about the brilliant South African artist William Kentridge (have I emphasized enough how brilliant this is?). Something here that should be hugely helpful to anyone who wants to be an artist, whether a musician, visual artist, writer or a plain human being artist, something about about playfulness, about openness, about accidental or incidental quality of art and attention, about giving up on silly things like career and jobs, about politics, about making beautiful things, about being really, really smart. Unfortunately, I can’t embed a PBS video into a WordPress post, so you must click the link below and watch the video on the PBS site (well, that’s not really “unfortunate,” I suppose). Thanks to Dawn Promislow for drawing my attention to this.

dg

William Kentridge: Anything is Possible (Click Here)

  6 Responses to “William Kentridge: Anything is Possible”

  1. This is truly wonderful. There is much to love. One highlight for me came at about 22 min when Kentridge riffed on perceptions and reality. I loved also his emphasis on experiencing the world (and art) as a process, without expectations of end results. When he spoke of his lawyer parents and the difference between their logical way of knowing about the world contrasted to making sense of the world through art, I thought about how science is much more like art than it is like lawyerly logic. Totally loved the documentary. Thanks for bringing it to NC, dg.

  2. Amazing. I once saw a Kentridge exhibit many years ago in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art…this was many years ago. Sort of just stumbled into this dark room one of his movies was playing. It had a powerful effect on me…it woke me up. This must have been ten years ago at least, and I’ve thought about it, many, many times, ever since. I just couldn’t recall the artist’s name until right now! So thanks for posting this and filling in that gap. His work is staggering and profoundly moving.

  3. I also believe “anything is possible.” This is incredible and I believe I’ll have to watch it more than once to absorb it all. I just sent the link to a friend, a lover of art and linguistics who will be going to South Africa in a few weeks.

  4. A brilliant artist and brilliant documentary indeed.
    Some favorite lines (paraphrased):
    ‘I think I think with my hands..which is why a keyboard is not a good place for me…some people think very well on a keyboard but I need the fidgety aspect of paper and charcoal,’
    ‘There’s an uncertainty about what you’re doing. I’m not worried about the end result but try to recognize something as it appears,’
    ‘I allow myself the luxury of arranging stupid pieces of paper every day for months in order to be able to say, ‘ah-ha’, a horse!’

  5. Wonderful program! I so admire how he integrates text into so many different kinds of visual art. Also, what an inspiring integration of the political and the personal.

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