A SOUTH AFRICAN DESIGNER (William Kendridge)

Felix in Exile (Medienkunstnetz.de, 2018)

In this essay there will be a visual analysis discussing  William Kentridge’s work Felix in Exile. William Kendridge is a South African artist and designer, born on April 28, 1955 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Best known for his prints, drawings and animated films. Kentridge’s influences are local artist -Dumile Feni’s, charcoal and pen drawings depicting the living conditions of Apartheid, Iconic Western artworks, social and political commentary and artist Francis Bacon’s triptych technique.

William Kentridge’s Felix in Exile is an animated video telling a story through scenes on which William Kentridge worked from 1989 to 1999. Felix in Exile design work consists of moving images that create a video effect. Each drawing which contains a single scene, is successively altered through erasing and redrawing and photographed in 16 or 35mm film at each stage of its evolution.( medienkunstnetz.de, 2018).

He will draw, erase and rework the same piece many times. Before he erases each version, he photographs it. Each photograph becomes a scene in the animated short film.(cnn.com, 2018)

There is use of rhythm, in the Felix in Exile the movement is created by one scene to the next. Each object has a meaning. The flow and rhythm is seen when viewing the artwork from the left side moving to the right. Kentridge’s style is described as “grubby” and “primitive”.

Kentridge can not be classified-experimentation with various media he is known for his home made animation technique-referred to as “Stone

Age”. He believes that each object is symbolic(has a meaning). His designs of animations are built using a stop-frame technique whereby each drawing or image created is photographed chronologically or in the order they appear in the film. Sequential photographs produce a narrative of film images

Many of Kentridge's pieces portray the plight of the powerless and oppressed in South Africa.(cnn.com, 2018).

Kentridge’s work is interesting and can be confused sometimes. His focus on telling a story through art is exceptional because his mentality is set on using one medium(charcoal) and creating or designing powerful pieces.

This piece or short film is about a girl named Nandi, Her many gazes are found in the mirror. The drawings Felix produce flood, his sparse room like water, like memory and longing. On the other hand, Nandi is embedded in a cosmic distance that dissipates in the misery of black South Africa. In the topography of the landscape, Nandi’s surveying instruments search for traces of history, for a standard of existence, for a direction.

The drawings and images of Felix and Nandi pile up one on of the top the other, functioning in both cases as documents of an emotional shock. The victims of the story are discovered on discarded daily newspapers and written as such into the landscape. Nandi too, finds death. Felix, on the other hand, finds himself once again in the deserted landscape of his homeland, but now with a suitcase full of drawings. (medienkunstnetz.de, 2018).

Kentridge’s purpose is to create or design art that moves, tells a story, unforgettable and delivers a strong meaning.