November 01, 2007

WEIGHING…and WANTING

An exhibition of the internationally recognized South African artist William Kentridge, WEIGHING…and WANTING, combines the terrains of medical imaging and geological mapping in an exhibition of charcoal drawings and video projection. November 1-December 16, 2007
Examining apartheid and its aftermath in charcoal and animation

An exhibition of the internationally recognized South African artist William Kentridge, WEIGHING…and WANTING, combines the terrains of medical imaging and geological mapping in an exhibition of charcoal drawings and video projection.

Kentridge works in a wide variety of media from printmaking, drawing and painting to filmmaking with a unique process of animation. Kentridge’s installations involve video projections of his animated films, and the drawings that comprise them, demonstrating the slow and consuming development of his films through the history of his markings and erasures.

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Kentridge developed his interdisciplinary art against the backdrop of apartheid, and much of his work continues to be politically charged. The projection to be shown at the Hoffman Gallery is the seventh in a series of films chronicling the history of Soho Eckstein Johannesburg, a recurring character in Kentridge’s work. The film shows Soho’s introspection, with MRI scans of his brain that plot a landscape of loss, regret and reconstruction.

“The way Kentridge translates his drawings into low-tech animation is fascinating,” said Linda Tesner, director of the Hoffman Gallery. “His process of working and reworking each cell of animation seems to reflect his nation’s self-examination as it works to overcome the horrors of apartheid.”

Kentridge’s work has been shown extensively throughout Europe and the United States, including recent solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, Centre Georges Pompidu in Paris, and Castello di Rivoli in Rivoli, Italy. He is the recipient of various awards, including the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film Festival and the Carnegie Prize.

Hugh M. Davies, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and curator of the original exhibit, will give a gallery talk at the opening reception on Thursday, Nov. 1 at 5 p.m.

November 1 - December 16, 2007