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Melancholic Constellations: The Art of William Kentridge

Melancholic Constellations (2010) explores the art of William Kentridge in context. Previous documentaries about Kentridge adhere to the ‘masterclass’ formula and provide little critical insight into the personal and political forces that shape Kentridge’s art within the context of Apartheid and ‘post Anti-Apartheid’ South Africa. The research aim of this fifty-five minute film was to explore the possibility of developing an ‘expressive documentary’. This involves a documentary address that is not illustrative or didactic, but embraces and reflects ambiguities and ambivalences present in all social interactions. Methodologically it places a responsibility on the audience to create and interpret meaning from the edited sequences. The decision to discard the educational and informational imperative of much documentary practice is evident in the ambiguous and suggestive imaging of Kentridge’s art. For example, a sequence where passers-by on the street stand to gaze at Kentridge’s art which is being back-projected from the University of Brighton gallery can be interpreted as representing people’s exclusion from elitist art, or their admiration for the internationally successful artist. The scene is a provocation about art production and artist-audience relationships. Comparable ambiguity characterises interviews with Johannesburg artists and scholars, edited to pose a series of provocations rather than set positions about the politics of art-making in contemporary South Africa. The film was part of a larger project including an exhibition of Kentridge’s work in Brighton funded through a peer-reviewed £80,000 Arts Council award. Footage was extended and re-edited for use in gallery space. The film premiered in Brighton at the Cine-City Film Festival. The Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art at UCL hosted a screening as part of a symposium on the politics of Art in South Africa. It was screened and discussed as part of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism at the University of Witwatersrand.