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PEOPLE & ARTS Tuesday 27 augusT 2019
Biggest ever Kentridge show explores Africa's history

By ANDREW MELDRUM he told AP. "South Africa
Associated Press has changed enormously
CAPE TOWN, South Africa and yet South African has
(AP) — Evocative videos, changed hardly at all.
graphic tapestries, char- Many aspects of daily life
coal drawings, woodcut here are still the same."
prints, sculptures and im- The exhibit fills up several
mersive sound installations floors of the Museum of
combine in the largest sin- Contemporary African Art.
gle show by South African The dizzying amount of
artist William Kentridge to work "is interspersed with
explore compelling themes rooms designed for reflec-
including South Africa's tion, such as a library where
apartheid history and the people can sit and look
participation of Africans in at elements of inspiration,
World War I. a workshop showing how
Surveying the work of Ken- Kentridge's prints are pro-
tridge's prolific 43-year ca- duced and the tapestry
reer in many mediums, the room which has seating
show brims over at two lo- to contemplate the fab-
cations, The Zeitz Museum rics mounted on the walls.
of Contemporary African There is also an area for
Art at Cape Town's water- children.
front and sculptures at the South African artist William Kentridge, left, at the opening of his exhibition in Cape Town, South Kentridge's sculptures, from
Norval Foundation in the Africa, Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. the small to the monumen-
Steenburg vineyards near- Associated Press tal are displayed at the
by. Norval Foundation gallery
"Why Should I Hesitate: Put- mentary have inspired his The show starts with Ken- ing to mount such an ex- set among Cape Town's
ting Drawings to Work," work. tridge's early charcoal pansive show of his work, vineyards in Steenburg.
opening Sunday, draws its "I didn't consciously or dis- drawings from the 1970s including 50% of his video "I call it anti-sculpture," said
title from the words of an ingenuously decide to in- and moves to his etchings, installations and 60% of his Kentridge of the work. "It is
African conscripted to fight clude political and social large graphics and videos, sculptures, made him think not like traditional sculpture
in the First World War, who reflections into my artistic evoking the tensions of about the historic sweep of where it looks the same
was faced with a difficult purpose. However, I grew South Africa's violent strug- changes in South Africa. as you walk around it. My
choice: risk death in the up in South Africa, in which gle against apartheid, the "South Africa has changed sculptures occupy space,
war or refuse to serve and it was, and is, impossible to system of racial discrimina- enormously. I was a student but there is only one spot
face persecution by the avoid politics," said Ken- tion that ended in 1994. in 1976 when there was where it all pulls together.
colonial regime. tridge. "I was aware from Wide-screen video and the Soweto students' upris- From other angles you see
Kentridge, the son of anti- a young age of living in sound installations take the ing and then a young art- all the different parts in a
apartheid lawyer Sydney an unnatural rather than a viewer through dream-like ist when the country was kind of exploded or cha-
Kentridge, who represent- natural society, and later, journeys in history and pro- in a state of emergency. I otic way. It shows how we
ed Nelson Mandela, told recognizing contradiction voke questions about the had 30 years of life under construct coherence from
The Associated Press that as a central category to present and the future. apartheid and now nearly what is a chaotic reality
social and political com- understanding society." Kentridge said that work- 30 years after apartheid," around us."q

Harvard librarian Hester Thursby returns in 'Missing Ones'

By OLINE H. COGDILL Comfort" have left her Fear and tension perme- lessly alternates between
Associated Press emotionally paralyzed, un- ate the small community of Hester's inner turmoil and
"The Missing Ones" (Kens- able to force herself to go Finisterre Island, eight miles the residents who live on
ington), by Edwin Hill to work or to allow Kate, off the coast of Maine, Finisterre where the librar-
The pain that remains fol- her 4-year-old ward, to at- where children have gone ian eventually arrives to
lowing a traumatic event tend kindergarten. Hester missing, only to be found help.
is never easy to overcome, has been raising Kate since unharmed days later. The Hill creates believable in-
often influencing one's be- her mother, Daphne, aban- island's residents aren't wel- terior chaos in Hester, who
havior and life choices, as doned her. No one knows coming to outsiders, even seems powerless to control
Edwin Hill shows in his sec- where Daphne is. Hester's to those seasonal tourists her anxieties, leading her
ond novel about Harvard link with — and love for — whose money is the area's to make bad decisions.
librarian Hester Thursby. The Kate is strong as Daphne lifeblood. The island also Hill's talent for storytelling
intense "The Missing Ones" is Hester's best friend since "brings people from away translates well to Finisterre,
poignantly looks at the fra- college and the twin sis- looking to disappear," and where many lead lives of
gility of emotional health ter of her live-in boyfriend, Finisterre offers plenty of quiet desperation fueled
and the pitfalls of trying to Morgan Maguire. hiding places, especially by unresolved ambitions,
make a fresh start. Hester and Kate spend the dilapidated Victorian This cover image released by unfulfilled love and unpre-
Kensington shows "The Missing
In addition to her career their days roaming their house that attracts addicts Ones," a mystery by Edwin Hill. dictable resentment.
as a librarian, Hester has hometown of Somerville, and drifters. Annie is one Associated Press Hill's affinity for creating re-
a knack for finding miss- Massachusetts, and hiding of those squatters who live alistic characters with com-
ing people. But the results their absences from work in the Victorian house, but creases daily as she uncov- plicated personalities and
of her investigation in the and school from Morgan her fear of her past — and ers others' secrets. suspenseful plots shines in
Agatha-nominated "Little and their friends. the island's residents — in- "The Missing Ones" seam- "The Missing Ones."q