'Drawing for The Great Yes, The Great No (Jungle III)' is from Kentridge's new series of drawings that relate to his new theatre production in the making, titled 'The Great Yes, The Great No', in which the artist uses the journey of a ship from Marseille to Martinique as a prompt for unpacking power, colonialism and migration. The drawings are used as backdrops in the performance and portray imagined scenes from the boat’s arrival in Martinique - an idea of the exotic Caribbean, which is in fact the domestic garden of Kentridge’s Johannesburg studio. Densely packed vegetation is punctuated by fragments of text - phrases such as “the house of justice has collapsed” or “we want no prophets in this garden”. The phrases come from the theatre production and prompt the idea of a drawing being what you read as a text, or a text that, in this case, turns into a garden. In Kentridge’s words “How much do you glean from what you read, and how much of what you read is changed by what you’re seeing around it?”

There Were No Books and The World Is Leaking are from Kentridge's new series of drawings that relate to his new theatre production in the making, titled The Great Yes, The Great No, in which the artist uses the journey of a ship from Marseille to Martinique as a prompt for unpacking power, colonialism and migration. The drawings are used as backdrops in the performance and portray imagined scenes from the boat’s arrival in Martinique - an idea of the exotic Caribbean, which is in fact the domestic garden of Kentridge’s Johannesburg studio. Densely packed vegetation is punctuated by fragments of text - phrases such as “the house of justice has collapsed” or “we want no prophets in this garden”. The phrases come from the theatre production and prompt the idea of a drawing being what you read as a text, or a text that, in this case, turns into a garden. In Kentridge’s words “How much do you glean from what you read, and how much of what you read is changed by what you’re seeing around it?”

“I really liked the paper we used for the project entitled ‘Oh To Believe in Another World’ in which we needed green-screen against which we filmed the actors, so for ‘The Great Yes, The Great No’, I have drawn on the green paper itself…. What remains is the idea of the garden as jungle, the idea of the exotic Caribbean which in fact is based on a domestic Johannesburg garden.

The texts and phrases on the drawings come from the theatre productions... The idea of a drawing that you read as a text, or a text that turns into in this case the garden, is an ongoing question, and an ongoing project, of text and image, reading and looking. How much you glean from what you read, and how much what you read is changed by what you’re seeing

around it.”

The garden in which this painting was created and which Kentridge alludes to above was his parents’, Sir Sydney and Felicia Kentridge’s, garden before him – so hosted many hours of meetings with Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko’s family and several of Sydney's other historic and courageous clients, and was therefore the venue for the creation of some of Africa, and history’s, most memorable, vital speeches.

Echoing those enduring words with phrases from the libretto of the 'The Great Yes, The Great No' including this work’s titular phrase 'The World is Leaking’, which is repeated often during the performance, this particular painting is also projected for a whole scene across the entire backdrop during the production, as it holds within its leaves and phrases much more than simply a study of an ordinary domestic garden. Johannesburg is the largest man-made forest in the Southern Hemisphere, as it is naturally Savannah grassland, and all of its trees were planted by human hands – so there is another layer of Kentridgean thought here in that ‘the Caribbean jungle’ represented here is a kind of theatrical green-screen for words and theatrically placed horticulture, as if each tree and plant are stage props on history’s stage.

Apron, Cursive (Fish) and Milk (2023) are part of an accumulation of elemental symbols within Kentridge’s broader practice. This series of bronze sculptures functions as a form of visual dictionary, giving thought to form. The sculptures are symbols and ‘glyphs’, a repertoire of everyday objects or suggested words and icons, many of which have been used repeatedly across previous projects. The glyphs can be arranged to construct sculptural sentences and rearranged to deny meaning.

Cut, Her and Pour are part of Kentridge’s ongoing Lexicon series. Acting as a visual dictionary, the sculptures form a vocabulary of symbols, or ‘glyphs’, representing a collection of everyday objects, suggested words, or icons that are ubiquitous in the artist's broader practice. Pour is the newest addition to this collection of bronzes.

Exploring and championing a breadth of mediums, such as animation, sculpture, performance and drawing, William Kentridge’s complex creations are multifaceted in form, resonating with audiences through their unifying exploration of the very fabric of our existence. Revisiting and reacting to philosophical, historical or political tropes, he conjures myriad themes in his polymorphic works which are experimental and conceptually rich.

Pour forms part of an accumulation of elemental symbols within Kentridge’s broader practice. This series of bronze sculptures functions as a form of visual dictionary. The sculptures are symbols and ‘glyphs’, a repertoire of everyday objects or suggested words and icons, many of which have been used repeatedly across previous projects. The glyphs can be arranged to construct sculptural sentences and rearranged to deny meaning.

“The glyphs started as a collection of ink drawings and paper cut-outs, each on a single page from a dictionary. Previously I had taken a drawing or silhouette and given it just enough body to stand on its own feet - paper, added to cardboard and put on a stand. With the glyphs, I wanted a silhouette with the weight that the shape suggested. A shape not just balancing in space, but filling space. Something to hold in your hand, with both shape and heft.” - William Kentridge

Walking Frame forms part of an accumulation of elemental symbols within Kentridge’s broader practice. This series of bronze sculptures functions as a form of visual dictionary. The sculptures are symbols and ‘glyphs’, a repertoire of everyday objects or suggested words and icons, many of which have been used repeatedly across previous projects. The glyphs can be arranged to construct sculptural sentences and rearranged to deny meaning. “The glyphs started as a collection of ink drawings and paper cutouts, each on a single page from a dictionary. Previously I had taken a drawing or silhouette and given it just enough body to stand on its own feet - paper, added to cardboard and put on a stand. With the glyphs, I wanted a silhouette with the weight that the shape suggested. A shape not just balancing in space, but filling space. Something to hold in your hand, with both shape and heft.” - William Kentridge

Cut, Her and Pour are part of Kentridge’s ongoing Lexicon series. Acting as a visual dictionary, the sculptures form a vocabulary of symbols, or ‘glyphs’, representing a collection of everyday objects, suggested words, or icons that are ubiquitous in the artist's broader practice. Pour is the newest addition to this collection of bronzes.

Cut, Her and Pour are part of Kentridge’s ongoing Lexicon series. Acting as a visual dictionary, the sculptures form a vocabulary of symbols, or ‘glyphs’, representing a collection of everyday objects, suggested words, or icons that are ubiquitous in the artist's broader practice. Pour is the newest addition to this collection of bronzes.

The first in a series of six sculptures, made from aluminium panels, fixed to a steel armature and hand-painted in oils. These works are based on a series of small-scale paper sculptures, made from coloured and torn pages from a 19th century accounting journal from the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo.

Paper Procession II is from a set of new hand-painted, aluminium and steel sculptures in vivid colour. The origin of these sculptures are a series of small paper sculptures, made from the torn and coloured pages of a 19th century accounting journal from the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo.

'Paper Procession VI’ forms part of a set of new hand-painted, aluminium and steel sculptures in vivid colour. The origin of these sculptures are a series of small paper sculptures, made from the torn and coloured pages of a 19th century accounting journal from the Chiesa di San Francesco Saverio in Palermo. This ‘Paper Procession’ speaks to the process of costume-making. During periods of intensive workshops in the making of a theatre production, Kentridge and his collaborators work with paper as a way to think about costumes, and their colours.