Willam Kentridge Assesment
This art work is named “Bridge”. It’s one of the sculpture works creating by William Kentridge. He used metals, clay, books and light to construct a fantastic stereoscopic work. Audiences can see different particular look when they change the point of view. The characteristic style of work is including reality and fantasy that William is good at play with trick people’s eyes and mind.


On the one hand, these carve and mould work has including two parts. One part is a sculpture that exists authentically in the world. This work is abstract, looks like some people walking on the bridge. Moreover, all of them were contorted mass and irregularity. The parts of their body are composed circuitous unnaturally. At the last of the bridge line which these abstract people stayed, is an irony thing likes a tower with an improper big fan on the top. Those abstract people were made by some brown clay and different sizes iron wire and a few of thick books. By the way, those books superimposing together became the bridge. The whole part looks like a work which is made by a naughty child who images an amazing story as his pleases, or like an angulate world exist in another space-time.


On the other hand, the background after this work used deep blue, and It made environment quiet and darkness. The only light was come from the top and deviated left hand. That spotlight made a shadow of sculpture on the deep background wall. Furthermore, those shadows, dusky light and peaceful environment are the other parts of the “Bridge”. In the shadow, audiences can clearly see some people are walking thought a bridge, and there were an old and shabby tower with a fan stay on a side of bridge. Although those people looks normal, doesn’t like the real first part’s characters have deformed limbs. Some of them are hunchbacks because they had carried something heavily, some of them moved hard and carried a weighty gunnysack on the arms, and others are ready to shoulder the heaviest loads. By the way, the winnower might use manpower and material resources sparingly. Therefore, all of them are face on the same way. It may be a story about the slavery society of antiquity. They had got the instruction from their master to build the winnower. And it also can be another story which talking about somebody impoverished and backward living in straitened circumstances. They had lost their job because the factory had got a new winnower, so the factory didn’t need workers anymore. Those people had no idea except to found some harder work and get less money for living. However, the shadow made by spotlight was not only like a picture with the language of black and white but also like one of the cinema scenes in the silent film. Exclusive of a shock come from the colourful painting or an exquisite masterpiece with exquisite lines in drawing, succinct outline and strong contrast between black and white can give more space for people to image.


However, from the integrated art work, something truly has a substance could be touched are topsy-turvy, but something just stay in front of person’s eyes are paint realistically. William Kentridge is creating optional like a urchin and play a magic with outline, light and shadow. Besides the pure artistic of visual sense from “Bridge”, the carving has a strong connotation came from its own soul. It’s the thing made the work differentiate from those simple copper billet and clay.

The other art work is a 8:43min short animated movie named “Felix in Exlle”. It was made in 1994, and 35mm animated film transferred to video. It’s one of the animated movies in a collected works named 9 Drawing for Projection, which William Kentridge made from 1989 to 2003. The movie is also used light and shadow, black and white to show the story and characters, but It has add a few of other substance such as sound, editing and music.

This movie had also including two different parts to show a stereopsis work, and continual change between plane and three- dimensional. In the part of three-dimensional one, there is a man who keeps a uniform greatcoat and an army cap. He is dancing with powerful steps and waving his greatcoat. However, we can’t see anything about his face or body from the movie, because the cinema scene has only shoot the close-up on his shadow on the wall. The other part is a little paper person on a black background who was made by some scarps of newspapers. He is mostly looks like that man dancing in the truly world. This part of movies is made up by a lot of photos that record the paper person every time changed dance movement. Moreover, the paper person’s dance is completely copy the man’s dance.