I had the pleasure of viewing William Kentridge's Two Films titled Weighing...and Wanting, and Journey to the Moon.
I saw them at the Saint Louis Art Museum where his art and films were on exhibition. They still are through May 22, 2011. Being the lover of art that I am, I like to see all kinds of art. This was no exception.
There was an ongoing viewing in a little darkened room area. There as a place to sit down. They movies kept playing back to back, so people could just come in for a bit and view them then leave again.
I saw these two films before I saw anything else by Kentridge. They were rather interesting, and as someone that previously knew nothing about him, I learned a bit about this man. The thing is though, it generated more questions than answers for me. They were very dark at times, or random, then happy for a brief moment then back to being very serious. He seemed to not mind using nudity in his art, and combined some different media within the art.
Industrialization, and his wife or significant other were key elements in his art. He seemed to long for the closeness and comfort of this particular nude woman who seemed somewhat elusive to him. She always disappeared as soon as she arrived. So it was kind of sad.
He uses a lot of ordinary household items here and there, and also uses random things from the outdoors. Again, I wish I had a person around to interpret his art because there is just so much going on there. He is very free to express himself, and its a true kind of art in that sense.
These films, by the way, use the method of stop motion animation. It can be rather painstaking to create.
Aesthetically speaking, its not my cup of tea, but that is no matter, as I can enjoy it all the same. It need not be art in my home to view daily, to enjoy the message and art of this artist, William Kentridge. Look him up, he is one interesting fellow for sure.
For instance, look into his art series revolving around the nose. Yes, nose. That is a whole other blog entry right there.
