Kentridge’s art, which has recorded South Africa’s shift from an apartheid, system of
ration segregation in South Africa, to a post-apartheid society, evokes the tensions and memories of the former government and reflects the inequalities of modern life. His work is inspired by a love- hate relationship with the gritty realism of his home city Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital. William Kentridge’s art can perhaps be best described as the art of motivity, energetic movement, both subtly and graphically, through social and political issues, an evocative individual, fusion of experience, fiction and imagination.
I was inspired by Kentridge’s style of using bold black strokes and energetic movement by incorporating lines that connects between objects, the flying birds, and water fall to give a sense of aliveness. Black, blue and red are the three major colors that Kentridge uses in his drawings which I also tired to use them in my piece.
My original piece were very different from this and I also had different artists however I decided to change because I wanted to keep the composition of my handmade collage and overlay Kentridge’s style which became my final piece here.
I also learned that Kentridge’s drawing are often inspired by mythologies. In my piece I wanted to incorporate the mythology about Icarus. The myth about Icarus starts like this. Icarus and his father Daedalus had been imprisoned by King Minos of Crete within the walls of his own invention, the Labyrinth. They wanted to escape from it, therefore Daedalus made two pairs of wings by feathers and wax. Giving one pair to his son, he cautioned Icarus that flying too near the sun would cause the wax to melt. But Icarus became thrilled with the ability to fly and forgot his father’s warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death.
