In case you were too young to attend William Kentridge’s original version of the early nineties puppet play ‘Woyzeck on the Highveld’ (as I was), the South African Handspring Puppet Company gives us a new chance to see it. They’re on tour in the UK these days. Future dates elsewhere will follow (I hope).
If you haven’t seen this documentary (trailer above) on South African artist William Kentridge yet, take your time for it. William Kentridge: Anything is Possible is the first in a series of Art21-produced features focusing on contemporary art and artists. Kentridge, as always, captures the essence of recent and less recent times: “This extraordinary nonsense hierarchy (we had in South Africa) made one understand the absurd not as a peripheral mistake at the edge of a society but as a central point of construction, so that the absurd for me is always a species of realism rather than a species of joke or fun.”
You can watch the documentary in its entirety here.
- Tom Devriendt
William Kentridge appears to be everywhere in New York City this year.
With a show, “Five Themes”, at MoMA (until May 17), an opera at The Met, and in the summer through early fall he’ll exhibit at the Jewish Museum. And, of course, for this we love him at Africa is a Country. In this video (part of the publicity blitz for his MoMA show, “Five Themes”–Kentridge discusses his early ambitions to be a performer, a conductor and an actor. Go see the exhibition.
[HT: Nerina Penzhorn]
– Sean Jacobs
The New York Times has a preview of William Kentridge‘s adaptation of a Shostakovich opera (based on a short story by Gogol), “The Nose,” which opens on Friday at The Metropolitan Opera in New York City. (My 4 year old has been talking about this for months–her dance teacher is performing in the production.)
From a profile of the artist, who was born and lives in Johannesbug, in The New Yorker:
The William Kentridge of the twenty-first century, Robin Rhode, is collaborating with the classical pianist Leif Ove Andsnes for a series of performances at Lincoln Center which “… brings together music and film in an evocative performance.”
