Interview: Dell Stewart

(Image of Dell working at Harvest Workroom on her current residency)
Image Source: Harvest Workroom

It's been a while since we have done an interview here and I am very excited that our latest interview is with Dell Stewart as I have been a fan of her artwork and blog for a while. As mentioned in my previous post Dell is teaching a 4 day stop-motion workshop at Harvest Textiles from the 2nd - 5th April for teens. In addition to the workshop Dell is currently participating in a residency at Harvest Workroom working on experiments with printing which will be used in a handmade book and animation.  You will be able to view the animation at the Harvest Workroom window (510- 512 Lygon Street, East Brunswick) as it progresses over the residency. 


Dell amazes me with her ability to work so well across many artistic disciplines and also her genuine passion and support for other people's art, craft, design and animation (which you can see through her blog) is inspiring.


So here we go - a little conversation with Dell about her stop-motion work

1. Tell us a little about your arts/design background

I have been making things as long as I can remember. I studied Fine Art – Printmaking and Drawing – in Queensland. I then moved to Melbourne and later studied Animation and Interactive media at R.M.I.T. I have been exhibiting regularly since art school, everything from drawing, installation and photography to animation, clothing and textiles.

2. When did you first discover stop-motion animation?

I guess I sort of fell into animation. I remember discovering after effects on a friends computer and playing around with it, I was excited enough to think I could do some animation for my first exhibition in Melbourne at First Floor artist's and writer's space. This seems crazy to me now, and I get a rash just considering most editing and post production software now. Some rotoscoped drawn animation I did for an exhibition at Utopian Slumps in 2007, Dead to the World.

 

I later discovered stop motion at R.M.I.T. but at the time I was definitely more interested in drawing, both on paper and in the computer. Annemarie Szeleczky was doing her Masters at A.I.M. at the time, working with found objects on glass in layers under the camera, I do remember loving her multi-layered collages to music. Just through seeing so much animation during my time at A.I.M. and watching other students working on various projects opened up the possibilities for me.

3. Do you have any particular favourite stop-motion works or other artists that inspire you?

 Andrew Thomas Huang. Amazing!

Allison Schulnik's  Forest. and Mound. 

FOREST - Allison Schulnik from FIBRA on Vimeo.

Also Maricor/Maricar, PES  short and sweet, Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine and my beloved husband Adam Cruickshank!

Early on it'd have to be Terry Gilliam, maybe the first stop motion I ever saw?

4. What mediums do you like to work with to create your sets and characters?

Stop motion appeals to me for it's rich tactility. With better quality cameras and the ease of shooting on digital you can really capture the qualities of whatever you are working with. I'm inclined to work with paper cut-outs as I still love to paint and draw, and I love working with textiles – also other found bits and pieces – anything is possible! Fruit Salad.

I worked with Kate Matthews on an Artist's in Schools project at Wooranna Park Primary where they had a multi layered animation box for the purpose of animating easily with children. It was a fun project and we were delighted by the results, animating with paper cut-outs, rice and spices, photos and collage elements.

International Noses from Kate Matthews on Vimeo.

Smells and Memory from Kate Matthews on Vimeo.

Kate and I have since run school holiday animation workshops at Artplay working with paper cut-outs  and we would love to do more.

What Animal are you? (THURSDAY) from Dell Stewart on Vimeo.

What Animal are You? (SATURDAY) from Dell Stewart on Vimeo.

What Animal are You? (FRIDAY) from Dell Stewart on Vimeo.

What Animal are You? (WEDNESDAY) from Dell Stewart on Vimeo.

5. What has been your favourite stop-motion piece that you have worked on?

I didn't do any stop motion in this project (I was drawing) but 'It's Like That' by the Southern Ladies Animation Group. The puppets were incredible knitted birds, beautifully animated by Sharon Parker, Justine Wallace, Sophie Raymond, and Diana Ward.

Its Like That from Diana Ward on Vimeo.

6. Can you talk a little on the processes used and experience of making this stop-motion animation?

It was a collaborative process, an idea brought to the group by Nicole Mackinnon, that basically everyone felt needed to be told. 'It’s Like That' uses the voices of 3 refugee children held in mandatory detention under the Migration Act 1958. They were interviewed over the phone by ABC journalist Jacqueline Arias. Once the soundtrack was edited it was broken up into sections for each animator to work on, with the stop motion characters narrating and holding the story together. This story is sadly still as relevant today as it was in 2003. Watch it! I drew the firey rice.

And read about it:

http://aso.gov.au/titles/shorts/its-like-that/notes/

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/11/14/1068674377213.html

7. What are your future plans in animation? Do you have anything in the pipeline that you would like to talk about?

I'm currently doing a residency at Harvest Workroom  and I hope to do some more stop-motion workshops later this year, at both Craft Victoria and Harvest textiles. My own projects might be limited to some experiments to go along with music and a few elements for my exhibition at West Space  later in the year. 

Event: ACMI presents William Kentridge Public Programs

(Image Source: ACMI)

I always wonder how time disappears so fast - feels like yesterday when we posted about the upcoming William Kentridge Exhibition Five Themes and now the time is almost upon us! The Australian Centre for the Moving Image has recently sent us some information on the upcoming public programs which will no doubt sell out quickly so if you are interested in getting in early here is the info:

William Kentridge: Public Programs

Programs held from 4 March until 27 May 2012

Coinciding with the exhibition William Kentridge: Five Themes (8 March to 27 May), one of the world’s leading contemporary artists – William Kentridge – will inspire and take part in a series of public programs presented by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image  (ACMI).

Nebula

Sunday 4 to Saturday 10 March, Opening times vary (Closed Wednesday 7 March)

Flinders Street Amphitheatre, Federation Square

Presented by Arts Access Victoria, Nebula is a revolution in inclusive design. It is Australia’s first portable and adaptive art space intentionally designed to meet the needs of artists with a disability. 

Located alongside ACMI, Nebula provides an accessible and functional space for artists to create work, conduct workshops, mount exhibitions and invite public engagement.

The Nebula studio will also showcase animations that have been inspired by the works of William Kentridge.

Visitors are invited to watch the artists as they work during Artists in Residence sessions, explore the gallery, and attend a talk with Nebula creators Andrew Maynard Architects.

General Gallery Access

Monday 5 March, 10am – 4pm

Saturday 10 March, 10am – 12pm

Free Admission. Drop in.

Artists in Residence

Sunday 4 March, 1pm – 4pm

Tuesday 6 March, 1pm – 4pm

Thursday 8 March, 1.30pm – 4pm

Friday 9 March, 1pm – 4pm

Free Admission. Drop in.

Public Talk with Nebula creators Andrew Maynard Architects

Monday 5 March, 4pm

Nebula, Flinders Street Amphitheatre, Federation Square

Join Andrew Maynard Architects as they discuss the creation of Australia’s first portable arts space for artists with a disability. Free Admission. Tickets available on the day from the ACMI Tickets & Information Desk.

In Conversation with William Kentridge

Tuesday 6 March, 6.30pm

ACMI Cinemas

Join curator and art historian Mark Rosenthal in conversation with William Kentridge. An artist that has created a remarkable body of work ranging from drawings and films to prints, tapestries and sculptures, Kentridge’s work offers a fresh and distinctive glimpse of the daily lives of South Africans. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

Intermix: Nebula + Five Themes

Wednesday 7 March, 1pm

Flinders Street Amphitheatre, Federation Square

Enter Nebula – a dynamic portable arts space created for artists with a disability – and get animated. This hands-on workshop offers young folks 13 to 18 years old the opportunity to create a portion of a short film in collaboration with Nebula artists in the Nebula hub.

Inspired by the works of William Kentridge, the animations produced in this workshop will pay homage to the artist’s unique and distinctive techniques, and will be incorporated into an animated film created by Nebula to be released later in 2012.

Free admission but limited spots are available. Participants must register in advance via intermix@acmi.net.au

21^st Century Museums: SFMOMA ‘Looking Back/Looking Forward’

Thursday 8 March, 4pm

ACMI Cinemas

Neal Benezra, Director of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) – the first institution to exhibit William Kentridge: Five Themes – talks about the history of SFMOMA, its collections, exhibitions and architecture, and the museum’s future directions and expansion. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

Anti-Entropy: A Natural History of the Studio

Thursday 8 March, 6.30pm

ACMI Cinemas

A public lecture by William Kentridge, who will delve into the anti-entropic world of the artist’s studio and its ability to provide a safe place for productive stupidity. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

Video Garden: Art Day South Film Works

Thursday 8 March to Sunday 27 May

Video Garden, ACMI

Experience a collection of short films by artists with a disability from the Art Day South collective. Ranging from hand drawn animation to digital works made with custom software and motion tracking technology, the collection includes new works inspired by William Kentridge.

William Kentridge Curator Tours

Thursday 29 March, 2pm

Thursday 19 April, 2pm

Thursday 3 May, 2pm

Gallery 1, ACMI

ACMI Curator Sarah Tutton and Assistant Curator Ulanda Blair will share their perspectives on various works in the exhibition, exploring the five key themes found in William Kentridge’s work. Free with an exhibition ticket.

William Kentridge: Creative Animation

Saturday 28 April, 10am

Studio 2, ACMI

Inspired by the work of William Kentridge, this workshop will explore how hand drawn animation can be created from drawings and cut out images. Participants will put together backgrounds, design characters, and learn through step-by step-tutorials how to animate their work using desktop computers and stop motion software. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

On Apartheid

Wednesday 2 May, 6.30pm

ACMI Cinemas

Reflecting the themes of the William Kentridge exhibition, human rights lawyer and activist Andrea Durbach presents a screening of A Common Purpose and a discussion of her experience of Apartheid. Indigenous consultant Jason Eades will also explore some of Australia’s separatist practices of the past. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

William Kentridge: Degrees of Separation   

Sunday 27 May, 2pm

Studio 1, ACMI 

Three presentations from Prof Jill Bennet, Dr Anne Rutherford and curator Victoria Lynn will explore the work of William Kentridge – the themes of his work, the mediums he explores and his distinctive creative process - drawing from the speakers’ intimate knowledge of the artist’s work. Tickets on sale soon via acmi.net.au

William Kentridge: Five Themes premieres in Australia after travelling to San Francisco, New York, Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem and Moscow. The exhibition explores five key themes that have captivated Kentridge throughout his career.

Well known for his stop motion films of charcoal drawings, Kentridge’s multi-disciplinary approach will be showcased through over 60 works ranging from animations, drawings and prints to theatre models, sculptures and books.

Born in 1955 in South Africa, and continuing to reside in his hometown of Johannesburg, Kentridge is highly regarded for a body of work that reveals strong links to the social and political environment of his home country. Tackling issues of colonial oppression, reconciliation, and the transient nature of individual and shared memory, his work deftly combines the political with the poetic. 

William Kentridge: Five Themes is exhibited exclusively in Australia in Gallery 1 at ACMI from Thursday 8 March until Sunday 27 May, 2012. Tickets for the exhibition are on sale now via acmi.net.au

Christmas Competition Winner: Paraphernalia by Bridget O'Halloran

Paraphernalia from Bridget O'Halloran on Vimeo.

We would like to announce that the winner of our Christmas Competition is Bridget O'Halloran with her short film Paraphernalia. We were all totally amazed at Bridget's effort so well done! We look forward to seeing more stop motions from her in the Future. 

Inspiration: New Gotye Music Video Clip - Somebody That I Used to Know

Most of you have probably already heard or seen this new music video clip for Gotye 'Somebody That I Used to Know featuring Kimbra but I had to share it again anyway! Animated using Stop-motion, it is directed, produced and edited by Natasha Pincus with body art by Emma Hack - beautiful idea.

I was so sad to read in the paper today that Sarah Watt passed away. She was an amazing Australian film maker and animator and I had only just finished reading her interview in the book 'The Divided Heart' by Rachel Powers which was so inspiring for artist mothers. 

Such a tragedy.

Screening: It's a Jungle In Here - Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine

(Image Source: Melbourne Festival)

Thankfully, here is another great animation event in Melbourne that I won't miss (especially after being away for the Shaun Tan talk, Adam Elliot talk and the Peter and the Wolf Screening!)

We recently interviewed the amazingly creative Isobel Knowles here about her work. She had mentioned in the interview a new collaboration with Van Sowerwine (another amazing animator) on the animation It's a Jungle in Here. The animation will start screening this week as part of the Melbourne Festival at Screen Space  and run from the 14th to the 29th October - so if your in town get along to check it out if you can!

Here are some details about the work from the Melbourne Festival website:

IT'S A JUNGLE IN HERE

How would you react if someone started behaving inappropriately, or aggressively? Do you try to pretend it isn't happening, or protest and take action?

This is the question posed by It's a jungle in here, an interactive installation artwork that inserts two people into a simulated environment and has them both create and respond to a series of increasingly unsettling encounters.

As the participants find themselves forced into the role of attacker and victim, a live feed of each participant's face is mapped onto the animated characters, channelling the tensions brought forth as the social compact begins to collapse.

Part psychodrama, part multimedia marvel, It's a jungle in here is a confronting tour of the fragile rules that organise our public lives.

Interview: Isobel Knowles

Isobel Knowles Showreel June 2011 from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

I first discovered Isobel Knowles when I went to a Craft Victoria talk called Make It, Design It, Fund It a couple of years ago. An Experimenta catalogue was circulated and flicking through stumbled upon Isobel's amazing artwork with Van Sowerwine called You Were In My Dream. I was really interested in stop-motion at the time and had experimented with using it in my own artworks but couldn't believe the amazing conceptual use of the medium in their work. This was also long before I dreamed of starting this blog so I can't believe I am here right now interviewing Isobel about her work and in particular the work that inspired me so much!

I think I had inspiration overload reading about Isobel's inspirations - so many great new people to find out about. If you would like to see more of Isobel's work you can go to her website here or her Vimeo channel here.

Tell us a little about your arts/design background

I was one of those kids who would draw and draw. I chose art in school wherever I could and started animating in my final year of high school. I went on to study Media Arts at RMIT where I got into making animations for installation in galleries and made a few short films as well. I started collaborating with Van Sowerwine at university and we have had a productive working relationship ever since.

(Image of Clara from the short film Clara (c) Film Camp, Directed by Van Sowerine .)

I made a music video for Architecture in Helsinki just after I graduated and during the production of it they asked me to join in and play trumpet with them. It was such a great experience but at the same time it was tricky leading a double creative life. I was shooting a short film, Clara, with Van and recording with Architecture in Helsinki at the same time and it was a difficult balance. The band took over and became a full time occupation for a couple of years. I had a great time and fell into making music videos because of all these music connections I was making. It was a lot of fun!

After I left the band I spent time overseas trading music videos for accommodation. When I came back to Melbourne I decided I wanted to do animation full time. I have managed to strike a good balance between artistic projects and commissioned work and I'm enjoying it immensely!

When did you first discover stop-motion animation?

Sesame Street! I loved that show to death. All those different vignettes made by incredibly talented animation artists!

I discovered stop-motion for myself when I started making animations in high school. The first few were pretty silly but for my graduating project I made an 8 minute alphabet with 26 different styles of animation to teach myself a broad range of techniques. There was a lot of stop-motion in there. Clay, cut-paper, objects, wire sculpture. I had a lot of fun with it.

ABC from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

Do you have any particular favourite stop-motion works or other artists that inspire you?

(Image still from Lotte Reiniger's Papageno 1935)

So many! Lotte Reiniger is my all time favourite paper cut animator. Suzy Templeton's Dog and her version of Peter and the Wolf are really beautiful puppet films. I loved Sinna Mann by Anita Killi. David Daniels stratacut animations are mind-melting. Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog has the most beautifully made 2d puppets. Jan Svankmejer wins for amazing concepts. I love kids shows like Towser, Magic Roundabout, Gumby and Spanish cartoon Capelito. Fantastic Mr Fox was a very exciting addition to the animated feature film world.

(Image still from the children's series The Magic Roundabout)

(Image still from Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog)

What mediums do you like to work with to create your sets and characters?

Anything really! You Were In My Dream had a lot of real tree branches which I loved the look of. Feathers, dried flowers, dried leaves. We tried to use as much natural material as possible and interspersed that with model making and craft supplies. I also love using cardboard. I recently made a factory set out of shoeboxes and felt. It was pretty free-form - just hacking away at cardboard with minimal precision, doing all measurements by eye. Van and I continued that lo-fi cardboard aesthetic with our new work that's in production now.

(Image of Isobel animating her factory in her collaboration with Cat Rabbit. Image source via Cat Rabbit's Website)

(Image still of a beautiful paper cut bird from You Were in My Dreams)

What has been your favourite stop-motion piece that you have worked on?

You Were In My Dream installation documentation from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

It's hard - like choosing a favourite child! I really enjoyed shooting You Were In My Dream. It was a collaboration with Van and I love working together with her on something big. I really loved animating the character transforming into various animals and the set was so pretty to look at all day long. But Clara was such a great project to work on too. We had decent funding so we got to use a lot of high-end equipment. We also shot it on 16mm and it was always such a rush at the end of each week when we'd take our roll of film off to be developed and watch the rushes from the week before.

Can you talk a little on the processes used and experience of making this stop-motion animation? 

I'll talk about You Were In My Dream since it's the most recent.

We originally wanted to make a 3d puppet animation like the ones we'd done together before but because of the animation needing to incorporate a live video feed of a face onto the animated character's face we decided that a 2d puppet would work better. We still wanted the sense of depth though so we made these giant sets full of the things I mentioned above and added a sheet of perspex with the cut paper 2d characters and sets to the top of that. I was really happy with how it looked in the end.

(Image still from the artwork You Were In My Dreams in use by Isobel and Van. You can see how their faces are projected into the stop-motion animation!)

(Image of a character in the process of being animated with the blank face which allowed for the projection of the viewers face to be placed there later when in use)

Our setup consisted of a custom animation bench which held the camera perpendicular to the set and had a tracking system for the set to travel left and right. The sets were 120mm long which gave us roughly three screens in length. It was important for the forest to feel quite big and like the character could run around and explore a large area. We had one set for the forest floor and one for the tree tops. We used a digital SLR connected to the computer and used Dragon Stop-Motion to capture and play back the animation. We had to use Flash for the interactive element.

(Image of Isobel on the right and Van on the left hard at work on the project)

The animation took a really long time. A lot longer than we'd expected. Van had just had a baby so I think we may have spent too much time tickling little toes! We animated about fifteen minutes worth of footage and because it's interactive and non-linear, people generally see two or three minutes at the most. It was important to the work, though to create a seemingly endless world of possibility. In addition to the fifteen minutes of stop-motion we had to animate a digital mask for the video to sit on top of the character's face. For every frame in the stop-motion we had to do a frame in Flash! So looking back it was an awful lot of work. Of course you never realise this before you begin!

(Image of a frog being animated bit by bit with a pair of tweezers!)

(Image of some of the many characters they would have cut out)

We were working to vague storyboards but most of it was on the fly editing decisions. Because we were shooting on a flat plane, though, we really only had the choice between long shot or closeup. I think this made it more manageable to shoot without a proper storyboard.

(Image of the final artwork being exhibited)

Do you think there is a resurgence in stop-motion animation in the recent years?

I think with digital cameras becoming cheaper and better, stop-motion has become more viable again. Consumer digital cameras are perfect stop motion tools so it's easy for anyone to try which is always a good breeding ground for new and exciting work.

After years of animation becoming predominantly digital and the 3d motion graphics developing into the default animated style, I think people are excited to see stop-motion again. There's still something very magical about an inanimate object moving around like it's alive that you just can't achieve in any other medium.

Do you prefer working on collaborations with other artists/clients or do you prefer creating from ideas of your own?

I like both worlds equally. I prefer spending the bulk of my time realising my own creative ideas but I love being able to make something that serves a purpose. It's like fitting a jigsaw together. Having constraints makes it exciting to find a solution for the challenge. It's also nice to be part of a creative community in this way. I've been very lucky with clients though, and pretty much find myself working for and with friends most of the time.

(Image Still from Isobels collaboration with Cat Rabbit. Source via Cat Rabbit's Website)

What are your future plans in animation? Do you have any exciting collaborations, artworks or music videos in the pipeline that you would like to talk about?

(Image still from a test animation on My Good Half . Isobel's collaboration with Anna Jeffries)

I'm working on a new artwork with my friend and collaborator Van Sowerwine. It's an interactive animation that is semi-stop-motion. The backgrounds are shot to camera and the characters are being done digitally. It's looking pretty good so far! We built a train interior and set up two enormous lazy susans with sets on them. The sets are cardboard renditions of garages, back fences and houses. Corrugated cardboard really does look like corrugated iron, especially when you do some texta tagging! We're exhibiting it in the Melbourne International Arts Festival at Screen Space in October so look out for it!

I'm also planning to do some more work with the wonderful Cat Rabbit which will be a delight I'm sure.

And a new collaboration is on the horizon with director, Anna Jeffries, who has written a script about some siamese twins from 16th Century Scotland. Hopefully that will get off the ground early next year.

I like how things have been developing so far and I'm sure finding it easy to keep busy animating! I'd love to do more short film work and maybe go work somewhere overseas for a while. Maybe Poland or Estonia. Seems like a girl like me could learn a thing or two from Eastern Europe!

Melbourne International Film Festival - Animation Shorts

If you missed the chance to see Melbourne animator Michael Greaney's film Aww Jeez at the Melbourne International Animation Festival you have another chance! His film will be screening alongside some other amazing international animation shorts (including stop motion animation) at this years Melbourne International Film Festival.

Aww Jeez will be screening on Saturday 30th July, 6.30pm at the Greater Union Cinema in the City.

We recently interviewed Michael here about his film Aww Jeez if you would like to find out more about his film.

 

Exhibition: William Kentridge at ACMI - 2012

(Image Source: provided by ACMI)

I have long been a fan of William Kentridge's work so I couldn't believe it when we received a very exciting press release yesterday from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image telling us that their major exhibition for the start of next year was to be William Kentridge's: Five Themes which will showcase the five key themes that has captivated his work over his career.

For those unfamiliar with William Kentridge's work he is well known for his stop motion animation artworks using his charcoal drawings about the social and political environment of his home country South Africa. To get a small insight into his style of work you can watch the following short film on his processes I found on youtube uploaded by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Here is some more information from ACMI on the exhibition:

From 8 March to 27 May 2012, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) presents William Kentridge: Five Themes, an exhibition by one of the world’s leading contemporary artists, William Kentridge.

Premiering in Australia after travelling to San Francisco, New York, Paris, Vienna, Jerusalem and Moscow, the exhibition explores five key themes that have captivated Kentridge throughout his career.

Well known for his stop motion films of charcoal drawings, Kentridge’s multi-disciplinary approach will be showcased through over 70 works ranging from animations, drawings and prints to theatre models, sculptures and books.

Born in 1955 in South Africa, and continuing to reside in his hometown of Johannesburg, Kentridge is highly regarded for a body of work that reveals strong links to the social and political environment of his home country. Tackling issues of colonial oppression, reconciliation, and the transient nature of individual and shared memory, his work deftly combines the political with the poetic.

“William Kentridge is one of the most significant artists working internationally today and we are thrilled to be presenting his exhibition Five Themes,” says ACMI Director Tony Sweeney. “An expansive and illuminating survey of Kentridge’s work over the past three decades, Five Themes reveals the full arc of his distinguished career and comes to Melbourne after a successful tour to MOMA in New York and the Albertina Museum in Vienna.”

The Five Themes Thick Time: Soho and Felix

The first section of the exhibition features a recurring fictional character in Kentridge’s work, Soho Eckstein, an overbearing businessman with an uneasy conscience and his delicate alter-ego, Felix Teitlebaum. An ongoing work of nine animated shorts, 9 Drawings for Projection traces the lives of these characters during the last decade of apartheid in Johannesburg.

Occasional and Residual Hope: Ubu and the Procession

Inspired by the Alfred Jarry play, Ubu Roi, with its strong themes of corruption and cowardice, Kentridge developed a series of etchings in 1996 called Ubu Tells the Truth. The following year he completed an animated film of the same name along with some drawings. Exploring themes of truth and reconciliation, these works are also a commentary on the human rights abuses that took place during the time of apartheid.

Parcours d'Atelier: Artist in the Studio

The third section of the exhibition explores Kentridge at a crossroads in his career, putting the spotlight on his own art practice to expose the work that takes place prior to a film, drawing or sculptural work being created. A tribute to French film director Georges Méliès, Kentridge’s large-scale multi-screen projection 7 Fragments for Georges Méliès (2003) consists of seven films revealing Kentridge’s own creative process.

Sarastro and the Master's Voice: The Magic Flute

In 2005, Kentridge directed a production of Mozart’sThe Magic Flute for Belgium’s renowned opera house, La Monnaie. Inspiring him to create several films, drawings and theatre models, and a video projection called Learning the Flute (2003), this body of work sees Kentridge explore the contrasting states of darkness and light.

Learning from the Absurd: The Nose

The final section of the exhibition consists of a multichannel projection made in the lead up to Kentridge’s 2010 production of The Nose, for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The companion piece, I am not me, the horse is not mine (2008), is a room-size installation of projected films that examine Russian modernism and the repression experienced by the Russian avant-garde during the 1920s and 1930s.

William Kentridge: Five Themes is organised by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the Norton Museum of Art. Generous support for the exhibition is provided by the Koret Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

William Kentridge: Five Themes is exhibited exclusively in Australia in Gallery 1 at ACMI from Thursday 8 March until Sunday 27 May, 2012. Further information about the exhibition will be revealed in late 2011.