Image above: Mechanic 2021 mohair tapestry in collaboration with Marguerite Stephens edition 1/6 261 x 281 cm
We are delighted to share Artist Profile’s feature on William Kentridge’s current exhibition, Tapestry, drawing, etching, bronze, film.
Tapestry, drawing, etching, bronze, film has, as you might expect, an emphasis on tapestries, which form the central focus of the show. These are always attributed to both Kentridge and Marguerite Stephens, with whom Kentridge has been collaborating since 2001. In an account of Kentridge and Stephens’s process written for this show, Annandale Galleries Director Bill Gregory illustrates the place where Kentridge’s work ends and Stephens’s begins: “Their process involves working from drawings or maquette form by Kentridge which are then woven in wool mohair weft, polyester warp and slit edging.” It’s also important to note, though, that this is not a factory-line arrangement where labour is firmly and fiercely divided; rather, the process is more dialogical, and Kentridge’s imagery is often inspired by the possibilities of the medium as they’re played out in Stephens’s studio. Kentridge collaborates in other media as well: on prints with David Krut, and in his design work for the stage with whole hosts of artists, musicians, and performers. As much as his work is deeply personal, then, it is also often the work of many, which this show wonderfully captures.
Like the warp and weft strands in the tapestries, the myriad frames in his intricate animated films, or the reams and reams of paper that his drawings are on and about, Kentridge’s body of work is dense, multiform, and endlessly variable. That this exhibition’s title is a list of forms is, then, totally apposite: what better than a list to indicate a movement (of the hand, of the story, and of a vision) on and on, multiplying, without any limit, perhaps, but time? Occupying both of the Derby Street spaces at Australian Galleries, Melbourne, this exhibition captures, intimately and expansively, the spirit of one of the most prolific artists working across the world today.
To read the full article, visit the Artist Profile website.
Tapestry, drawing, etching, bronze, film is current until Saturday 23 July 2022. Click here to view the exhibition online.