Griffin Art Projects presents William Kentridge: The Colander, to September 4
Post-apartheid, authoritarianism, globalization, and colonization among the themes that emerge in the prolific South African multidisciplinary artist’s work
Sibyl by William Kentridge
JOHANNESBURG NATIVE WILLIAM Kentridge has had his work shown in the Museum of Modern Art, Musée du Louvre, London’s Whitechapel Gallery, Vienna’s Albertina Museum, and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, to name just a handful of place of renown; he is also a five-time Venice Biennale participant. His opera productions (including Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Shostakovich’s The Nose) have been seen at opera houses around the globe, and his theatrical productions have been created in collaboration with organizations like the Handspring Puppet Company.
Now, the multidisciplinary artist who’s also known for his films and drawings is showing at Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver.
Kentridge combines genres to create works that have firm footing in politics, literature, science, and history but that are also imbued with uncertainty and juxtaposition.
Curated by Griffin Art Project’s director, Lisa Baldissera, William Kentridge: The Colander “explores the critique of political structures in Kentridge’s printmaking and filmmaking—looking at the layered, kinetic and collaged nature of his formal working processes, to investigate the porousness and vulnerability of artmaking and life”, according to a release.
The colander motif has often appeared in Kentridge’s work, the artist examining post-apartheid South Africa and authoritarian ideologies in other parts of the world.
The exhibition draws from private collections in Western Canada and also features previous projects and new works from the Kentridge Studio in South Africa that were produced last year during the pandemic. In addition, it touches on the processes of the studio in his 2020-2021 series, Studio Life.
Planned with assistance from Jillian Ross Print, Parts & Labour, VivianeArt, Calgary and David Krut Workshop in Johannesburg, the exhibition is accompanied by Worldings, a series of international and Canadian online public programs and residencies that explore artistic perspectives in Canadian and South African experience as seen through the eyes of artists, writers, curators, and arts administrators.
“The project reflects on the concept of ‘the colander’ and how the global events of 2020 expose, through the experiences that have unfolded in each place, unique histories of precarity, globalization and colonization, to focus on resilience and resistance,” the release notes. “This project initially was conceived to consider parallels that exist between Canadian and South African histories of colonization, as well as each country’s eventual Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the reverberations and effects of these colonial political regimes within contemporary 21st century life.”
For more information, visit Griffin Art Projects. Admission is always free; bookings required.
City Deep by William Kentridge.
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