*2024 repress* Second-Hand Reading is composed of hundreds of drawings superimposed on pages from the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary and other lexicons and encyclopedias. Like figures on a stage, drawings of the artist, scenes from nature, geometric shapes and phrases dance to music by Neo Muyanga across a backdrop of definitions and classifications. These rational sequences of words are counterpoised with the intuitive and the imaginary.
William Kentridge is one of South Africa’s pre-eminent artists; globally acclaimed for his drawings, films, lecture performances and opera and theatre productions. His work draws on varied sources, including philosophy, literature and early cinema to create intricate art works and spellbinding environments in which he explores theories of time and relativity, the history of colonialism and the aspirations and failures of revolutionary politics.
