Title: XA, XA, XA
Medium: Linocut
Dated: 2010
Unframed: 109.5cm x 69.5cm
At the opening of the recent retrospective exhibition held at Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in 2019, Why Should I Hesitate – Putting Drawing to Work, Kentridge explained the movie camera as essentially a self-portrait. Interestingly in all the images of the camera produced over the years the one leg of the tripod points forward. On this the artist commented: “We have to always put our best foot forward.”
“I think humanism is also a product of the period. In South Africa, a lot of support for the liberation movement came from the Eastern Bloc. There was a sense of openness to thinking about Marxism: about those ways of understanding and analysing the world. At the same time, one was aware of Praque in 1968 and all the complexities of the Cultural Revolution. So, Maoism wasn’t an option, Stalinism wasn’t an option, even Leninism wasn’t an option. What was very strange was this strange paradox: that all the best intentions and most utopian hopes might be met with disaster. To simply renounce them was to leave a gap; there was a feeling that something needed to be done. At the same time, there was a sense of caution, not to pin your hopes to these huge ideas” – William Kentridge (Zeitz MOCAA 2019:33).
