The gentle philosophy of William Kentridge - (and experiments with chance, fortune and edges)

I'm finding that listening to interviews of Kentridge talking about his process is hugely enabling for me as I tread the unknown with my work at the moment. Having being giving some thought about what direction I want to move in, or the space I want to inhabit artistically at the moment, I'm finding myself drawn to his work and philosophy more and more.

I first encountered his work first hand at the RA exhibition in September and wrote about my experience in an earlier post.

As time has progressed, it's become clear to me that his work and ideas are now a central influence on my practice. Interestingly, he talks himself about when we encounter ideas and influences - the question we ask is how long it that we stay with it or how long we investigate it for. I feel at this point I'm still very much investigating his work, as well as some of my own external interests that surround themes and imagery associated with the feminine.

I noted down some key quotes today that particularly resonate.

“In the physical activity of making the drawings new ideas emerge and possibilities are seen which then start to direct it – and then after a while you start saying well what does it all start to add up to? What are the kinds of concerns that are coming out in the work? And that becomes the shape”. (ref William Kentridge – ‘Art Must Defend the Uncertain’ | Artist Interview | TateShots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnweo-LQZLU)

" Making art is a practical activity for me, it's not sitting at a computer and thinking through an idea, it's embodying an idea through a physical material - paper, charcoal, steel, wood....I think a central category is recognition. And for that to operate you need to have an open field. If you have a very set plan of where you have to walk, where the drawing is going, it makes it much harder to allow yourself the openness to also see what's arriving by chance, through fortune, at the edges"

He goes on to question ' how does one work in the studio to best enable this to flower' and he answers that one of the ways to do this is to not have a set script or storyboard or a clear plan. To not know the answer'.

(ref William Kentridge Interview: How We Make Sense of the World - https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=G11wOmxoJ6U

I'm really drawn to his eloquence and how he communicates in such a gentle and unassuming way. I want to try and hold onto these sentiments as I progress with my own work. To feel reconciled that not knowing the answer is ok.