ART-PRESENTATION: William Kentridge-Tummelplatz
William Kentridge is renowned for his evocative drawings and animated films exploring time, the history of colonialism, and the aspirations and failures of revolutionary politics. His practice addresses the nature of human emotions and memory, as well as the relationship between desire, ethics, and responsibility.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Ivorypress Archive
In 2013, William Kentridge served as the third Humanitas Visiting Professor in Contemporary Art at the University of Oxford, an initiative developed in close collaboration with and sponsored by Ivorypress and organised in association with the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art. The artist’s book “Tummelplatz” by William Kentridge is printed in an edition of nine (plus four HC and three AP), comprises two volumes, each of which contains ten stereoscopic photogravures by the artist. Ivorypress hosts an exhibition in which several of the volumes of this book, are shown. “Tummelplatz” arose from a wish to make, in the most analogue way, a virtual reality pop-up book: to play with three dimensions and the essentially flat format of paper and a book. The idea was to use stereoscopic photography to give an illusion of depth in images, of layers coming forward towards the viewer from the book. For this project, 19th Century processes of stereoscopic photography and particularly photogravure printing were used as a way of reproducing the photographs. The format of the book was informed by the historical format of stereoscopic aerial photographs used by mapmakers. To make each stereoscopic image, Kentridge made a 3D drawing in his studio: distant horizons, landscape, and distant elements of the landscape were pinned to the walls of the site (char-coal was used to make the drawings), and foreground images, objects, and texts were drawn and arranged on an angled table-top in front of the wall. A pair of stereoscopic photographs was taken of each one of the landscapes, and these were turned into photogravures, using the technique of light sensitive gelatin applied to a copper plate and etched in different strengths of acids, to achieve the rich tonal grey scale characteristic of photogravures. The 3-dimensional drawings were made over a period of approximately two years. About 40 images were made of which 20 were selected to constitute the double volume of “Tummelplatz”. Alongside the making of the images and photogravures was the parallel work of finding the right papers, binding, and machinery of making the book.
Info: Ivorypress, Comandante Zorita 46-48, Madrid, Duration: 2/11/17-27/1/18, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-15:00 & 16:00-19:00, Sat 11:00-14:00, www.ivorypress.com
