Notes on Artist Talk between Vivienne Koorland and William Kentridge 181116

Last night, Edinburgh had the pleasure of receiving Vivienne Koorland and William Kentridge at the Fruitmarket Gallery near Waverley Station. The exhibition titled Conversations in letters and lines curated by Tamar Garb is on from now until the 19th of February 2017. A must see. William Kentridge is a long-term art hero of mine so it goes without saying that I'm feeling very lucky and grateful to have heard him talk last night. I am a relatively new audience to Vivienne Koorland's work, but there is so much richness there to explore that I just can't wait to return to the exhibition! Which by the way is free.. !

I took some notes on questions and comments from the talk last night and I won't go into great detail but I will list a few poignant moments. Please forgive me if I have paraphrased incorrectly or misinterpreted what was said. It was clear that the three artists had a genuine affinity for one another; also evidenced by the people they had around them. I look forward to learning more about these two and engaging with their works first hand at the Fruitmarket Gallery. Here goes.. 

Tamar Garb (TG): Both artists are brought together by a shared personal history as well as the tangible links that underpin the foundations of their works. Both artists are engaged in the act of making and the use of palimpsest both materially and historically. There's a strength in the traces of making being allowed to remain.

Vivienne Koorland (VK): Idea of home as something that is everywhere and nowhere, having left South Africa and made home elsewhere, making for her is an act of comfort. Referenced Maurice Merleau-Ponty's idea that the artist/painter brings their body to the action of painting.

William Kentridge (WK): Making as a bodily action

TG: Does the political come out of an ethics of making?

WK: The answer is more stupid than that. Between history and the collision of making arises a practical epistemology. Like making history on one leg, there is agency in making the leaps and filling in the gaps.

TG: When does one declare/secret oneself in the work? 

VK: The act of inscribing her name and date on the work as an intervention of self-declaration.

WK: Particularly referencing the change in using Felix as a character to using his own image in his works, WK spoke about the articulation of the self being like a self portrait in the third person. 

TG: What is your relationship with narrative? 

VK: Vivienne spoke about a desire to move away from representation. Forsaking representation, moving away from sentimentality. 

WK: William challenged this idea in saying that there was something very special in the fragmentation of narrative and that he enjoyed the moments of the 'particular' in Vivienne's work. In the particular you'll find the global. The work will speak for itself. If the work is elegant, crass, arrogant, whatever... you can't hide. 

VK: In questioning the limits of representation, Vivienne spoke of her 'song paintings,' as an extension of language. 

In summary, the most important thing I took away from this conversation was this idea of a practical epistemology between history and the collision of making (WK). Finding truth through making and a pulling together of knowledge to form new links and ways to understand the world and our context as human beings from the personal to the global. These were powerful and very practical words of wisdom from two greats. Thanks guys! x