Stereoscope 1999

Animated film using charcoal and pastel drawings; 35mm film transferred to video; 8min 22 sec.

Stereoscope was the first of Kentridge's animated films which explicitly took the notion of the complexity of the field of vision as its formal idea. The film is constructed out of a series of doubled events.

The film constructs a narrative which is in part about political mayhem, but also a meditation on personal grief and perspective. Soho is effectively trapped within parallel universes: in one frame he sits within a room emptied of meaning, while alongside if he stands overwhelmed by lines, images and machines. Kentridge uses the visual device to suggest the simultaneously void and saturated worlds of contemporary existence.

Read more: William Kentridge: Stereoscope by Lilian Tone