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Contrasting Time and Space in William Kentridge's Film: Johannesburg 2nd greatest city after PARIS Johann Oppermann University of South Africa, PO Box 392, Unisa, 0003 Email: [email protected] Both Johannesburg and Paris are great cities that played important roles in the private life of William Kentridge. Kentridge was born in Johannesburg and is still living there. It is mainly a mining city with visible reminders of its past still evident in the huge mine dumps, highways and headgear structures over mine shafts. By contrast, Paris is the city where Kentridge studied mime (1981 - 1982) at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq and gained international exposure. Geographic and historical location are very important elements in all William Kentridge's animation films. In this film the scene is Johannesburg - a city built on speculation. When Kentridge as cinematographer joins different frames or filmstrips the viewer is transported within seconds from Soho's capitalist interior to the barren landscape of the workers. Kontrasterende tyd en ruimte in William Kentridge se film: Johannesburg 2nd greatest city after PARIS Johannesburg en Parys is beide groot stede wat elk 'n belangrike rol in die lewe van William Kentridge gespeel het. Hy is in Johannesburg gebore en woon steeds daar. Dit is hoofsaaklik 'n mynstad met sigbare oorblyfsels van groot mynhope, mynskagte en hoofwee. Parys hierteenoor is die stad waar Kentridge mimiek tussen 1981 en 1982 by die Ecole Jacques Lecoq bestudeer het en internasionale blootstelling verwerf het. Beide geografiese en historiese ligging is baie belangrike elemente in al Kentridge se animasiefilms. In hierdie film is die toneel Johannesburg - 'n stad wat op spekulasie gebou is. Wanneer Kentridge as filmmaker verskillende raampies of stroke film kombineer, word die toeskouer binne sekondes vanaf die kapitalistiese interieurruimte waarin Soho hom bevind na die lee landskap van die werkers verskuif. Johannesburg 2nd greatest city after characters move over the drawing sur­ PARIS (1989) is the first in the face, some parts have been rubbed out Drawings for Projection series of short and new areas have been drawn and animation films with Soho Eckstein, photographed as the process repeats capitalist, as the main fictional charac­ itself. Weare in fact watching the ter. The setting, characters and theme of creation of a drawing. The ghosts of this film have been repeated in the other previous images remain on the paper, animation films. because charcoal seldom erases cleanly. Geographic and historical location These ghost images also serve as are critical important elements in all metaphor for South Africa's predica­ Kentridge's films. His charcoal dra­ ment, that erasing the past is an exercise wings portray South African society of that can never be complete. the 1980s and 1990s against its socio­ By repeating these still images political backdrop. The essential inspi­ Kentridge brings his story to life and he ration for his contemporary art works is draws the viewer into the images to evident in the manipUlative blending of decode the events. He leads the viewer historical periods with contemporary to see his references and to decode - time, and imaginary space with known them. The story is thus an essential part spaces. of his animation process. Kentridge In contrast with traditional cel­ uses the animation technique to tell the animation, Kentridge draws his charac­ story in consecutive camera shots and ters directly on white paper. As the frames. 113 Digitised by the University of Pretoria, Library Services Film title images become reality and the subject of his film. The viewer can relate to the specific geographic spaces through the title, Time and space Johannesburg 2nd greatest city after PARIS. Both Johannesburg and Paris Time and space are two structural are metropoles. Kentridge was born in elements of the film that supply the Johannesburg (physical space) and also basics for the physical world and the spent his adolescent years there. Paris, subjective reality. Space is both three­ on the other hand, can be seen as his dimensional and immobile, while time instructor: Kentridge studied there and can only be measured in terms of its came in contact with external (inter­ neverending passage or train of events. national) influences. This could be why The moving element in film transforms he wrote PARIS with capital letters in time and space to a more convincing the title of his film. reality. Film is an art form and dynamic The title signposts two physical medium with movement as its main spaces thousands of kilometres removed component. Movement is only possible from each other. Furthermore, the title within the time and space ( or time­ is also ironic, because Kentridge' s space) matrix. "greatest" Johannesburg merely brings Kentridge proved himself as a scru­ into livid prominence all the scars of the pulous visual commentator (Burger, mining-town days. The central theme of 1990) by means of his references from this film is the random and rampant his own social and political background, commercialization of the city and how which he incorporated into his graphic this affected both man and nature. works. To this end he had a good visual The scene is Johannesburg, a city vocabulary - metaphors for the reality built on speculation - a landscape of of daily living.1 mine dumps and highways. Kentridge The decadence of the bourgeoisie is portrays his own space - a space that also a metaphor for society. According comes from his childhood days - by to Arnold (1986): means of maps, place names and objects. He tells his own story by means Man's interference with the land and inability of his huge pastel- and charcoal dra­ to control waste, evokes a sharp reminder wings on white paper. that, in this land, people have also been treated as expendable objects to be moved The drawings are packed with visual arbitrarily and abandoned thoughtlessly. references to his known spaces, which can be further decoded in terms of his Kentridge's use of the film as images and title screens (almost like medium effectively erase and transcend silent movies) that move across the the limits of time and space. Time is screen. Marilyn Martin writes in Weekly pliable and can be modelled or Mail (1986): controlled with precision. He not only manipulates the physical action, but Words are added as signifiers of place and context. also his time, the viewer's time, his emotions, as well as the dramatic flow of the film. The viewer recognizes and decodes these images and words of Kentridge's Time is usually contained within a references to try to understand his single frame. Kentridge uses his artistic messa?e. Different themes overlap in freedom to manipulate time to reach his each flh~, but are held together by time goals by means of the movement from as bondIng agent. The time and space one frame to the next. He usually makes context as background to Kentridge' s use of real time, but he also makes use of slow motion, high-speed motion or 114 Digitised by the University of Pretoria, Library Services frame freeze to underline his message. In 1985, when the first State of Through these techniques time Emergency3 was announced, razor wire transforms to a new dimension and was added on top of this. These walls message without losing the viewer on were not broken down with the unban­ the way. This method may also add to ning of banned persons and organiza­ the emotional context of the film. tions, but were topped with electric Rhythm and emotional experience fencing. go hand in hand - influenced by time The physical space can be described just like the real world - minutes, hours, as the concrete, physical locality where days, seasons, life - an illusion of the the action takes place, for example in world on film. Each film follows its the city of Johannesburg, around mine own pace by means of the drama and dumps, inside Soho' s mansion. frame of mind. The cinematographer What does the space look like? How must know the rhythm of his film - is it arranged? Place names like each shot or part thereof; the timeframe Johannesburg and Paris may replace un­ (action) will set the pace. necessary space compositions. Accor­ The cinematographer decides what is ding to Vandermoere (1982:128): important for the storyline of the film and what must be left out. The ... the simple naming of a place may replace a lot of qualifications. The reader knows that transitions between different periods are New York is not the same as London, Paris or ideal places to cut the time, because the Moscow. transitions between time and space are easil y overcome in these spots. The inhabitants of a city may also One becomes accustomed to a qualify a space. The description and particular space through the senses of qualification of different spatial units sight, hearing, feel and smell. For this may not always be correct. reason spaces may be seen as a series of Big cities, rural villages, streets and visual/sensual impressions. In the Ken­ houses all have their own set of tridge films the space portrayed occa­ common, distinctive features. The more sionally gives one the impression of real precisely a space is portrayed, the more spaces instead of just backdrops for specific features it will have in common characters, their worthiness or their with other places. actions. Kentridge sees the South African Kentridge portrays his characters space or landscape as follows: within the urban landscape space - the action moves from Soho's study to his There are no points, geographical or moral, that I am trying to illustrate. The drawings are bedroom within seconds. Kentridge empirical, naturalistic. But they are says that the artist shows awareness of approached with some sense that the his environment in his use of visual ma­ landscape, the veld itself, holds within it things other than pure nature (Burger, terial.

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