Sharjah Art Foundation Presents William Kentridge’s First Major Solo Exhibition in the region
A Shadow of a Shadow features a survey of 17 performances by the artist, spanning from the late 1980s to the present.
Sharjah, UAE, 12 September, 2024: Sharjah Art Foundation is delighted to present A Shadow of a Shadow, a comprehensive survey of 17 performances by William Kentridge spanning from the late 1980s to the present. Kentridge’s first major solo exhibition in the Middle East showcases a wide range of his work, from his interpretations of King Ubu—the outrageous protagonist from Alfred Jarry’s play UbuRoi [King Ubu] (1896)—to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute (1791) alongside Kentridge’s original production The Head and the Load (2018) about Africa and Africansduring World War I.Visitors will encounter a variety of objects and artworks produced for the development and presentation of Kentridge’s performance projects, includingdrawings, stage backdrops, animations, puppets, props, costumes and installations inspired by theatrical illusions.
The exhibition title is inspired by a play by the thirteenth-century playwright and puppeteer Muhammad bin Daniyal, who fled Iraq during the Mongol invasions. Prompted by the sense that the world was ending, his shadow plays satirised authorities and exposed societal corruption, tropes that would appear again centuries later in Jarry’s UbuRoi and Kentridge’sadaptation. While nodding to Kentridge’s predilection for shadow plays and puppet theatre, A Shadow of a Shadow also pays homage to his incisive political rebuke of authoritarianism through absurdist satire and theatricality. Together, the works selected for this exhibition speak to the artist’s ongoing critique of social constructs, power structures and the colonial project’s metamorphic manifestations.
A master draughtsman, illustrator, filmmaker and sculptor, Kentridge is also a prolific theatre-maker who has collaborated with local theatre groups and world-renowned opera houses for more than four decades. His practice encompasses theatrical, musical and operatic projects with visual components that appear and reappear in different articulations.Centring around the human condition, his multifaceted imagery is often interwoven with the social, political and economic realities of South Africa.
Running from 28 September to 8 December 2024, this exhibition is curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, and Tarek Abou El Fetouh, Senior Curator and Director of the Performance Department, with May Alqaydi, Assistant Curator, and Khalid Mohammed, Curatorial Assistant, Sharjah Art Foundation.
Media contact
Sharjah Art Foundation, Alyazeyah Al Marri
alyazeyah@sharjahart.org
+971 (0)6 5444113
About William Kentridge
William Kentridge (b. 1955, Johannesburg) combines drawing, writing, film, performance, music, theatre and collaborative practices to create artworks that are grounded in politics, science, literature and history but still maintain a space for contradiction and uncertainty. In 2016, he founded the Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg.
His work has been shown at MoMA, New York; Musée du Louvre, Paris; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Reina Sofia, Madrid; and Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, among others. Kentridge has also participated in documenta, Kassel (1997, 2002, 2012), and the Venice Biennale (1993, 1999, 2005, 2013 and 2015).
Kentridgehas received the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, London (2023); PraemiumImperiale in painting, Tokyo (2019); Antonio Feltrinelli International Prize (2018); and Commandeurdansl’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France (2012). His artworks can be found in numerous collections, including Art Gallery of Western Australia; Art Institute of Chicago; Sharjah Art Foundation; MoMA, New York; MAXXI Rome; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; and Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi.
