William Kentridge What Will Come (has already come), 2007 Steel table, cylindrical steel mirror and 35mm, transferred to video 8 mins 40 secs Courtesy the artist’s studio 2012
Objects / installations Kentridge has created other three-dimensional objects and installations. The mechanical theatre piece, Black Box / Chambre Noire (2005) is an intricately constructed raised proscenium stage, 12 feet high, with drawings and projections, including live-action and animated films, and mechanised puppets that roll in and out of the wings. The piece recounts the 1904 German suppression of the Herero uprising in present-day Namibia which involved widespread genocide, rape and starvation. The title establishes a link both with the black box camera in photography and the flight data recorder that captures information in the event of a plane crash.
William Kentridge Black Box / Chambre Noire, 2005 Model theatre with drawings, mechanical puppets and 35mm animated films transferred to video Courtesy the artist’s studio 2012
Tapestries In 2001, Kentridge began making a series of tapestries in collaboration with the Stephens Tapestry Studio in Johannesburg. His designs replicate images that combine his cut paper, drawings and silhouettes. As in the projections used in his performance pieces, tapestries serve as another way of increasing the scale of smaller art works. Historically, they also have cultural significance as art form associated both with denoting wealth and with alleviating the harsh conditions of nomadic existence. To make them, art works are photographed and printed on a much larger scale. These are then placed behind the loom to serve as a guide as the tapestry is woven. Forging another link with Kentridge’s interest in projection, the finished work is
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