land elegies blends fact and fiction in a searing commentary on the existential crisis of being american today. well encounter it is one of the world's most important visual artists working today he uses multiple media and is well known as a theater and proto rector but drawing is always his starting point his way of thinking aloud and as a white south african a way of reckoning with his country's painful past history which is why it's now the focus all of the retrospective why should i hesitate putting drawings to work. magical films between disintegration and creation. that all begins with a simple charcoal line. drawing is of the essence of the multi-disciplinary artist william cantrips. an exhibition in hamburg gives an overview of

the south african artists graphic works. also one displays some of the famous films created from his drawings. and paint for life he brings into a perhaps cold medion films something handmade and warm this is aside from the topics he addresses which have to do with apartheid and with this rather brutal industrialization found around johannes or. misspoke. again and again the works return to exploitation racism and violence against black people topics that cantor has been familiar with since childhood. his lawyer father . represented victims of

a part of his mother also fight for human rights. but that hasn't resulted in kendrick feeling obliged to see himself as a political artist this works or rarely has an m.b.a. give us as with this refugee boat it's the ambiguous sometimes and it magic that makes his work so exciting. cantered also has a sense of humor. he's no fan of big mouths or ideologues and silences them using his own unique methods. his artistic commentary on the maoist cultural revolution was not well received in china racism. racism post colonialism and especially the african perspective on europe not always looking from europe to africa these are the big topics of debate today. the sides of the hearts this country it's.

the william country it is not concerned with being topical. his work is too complex for that. in all of his roles are pro-war theater director actor or an artist humanist shines through and that cantor is also presented to wonderful effect in hamburg. and william kendrick joins me from just outside of london today it's a pleasure to have you on the program mr can trade i'm interested yes and i'm interested in the title this idea of hesitation because uncertainty is such a light motif through much of your work tell us what's behind it please. i suppose i'm interested in texts which are riddles that you can't solve so why should i hesitate that could even mean why should i hesitate there's nothing to hesitate for

let me go straight to it or trying to ask why is it that i do has attained. and excess prose about the uncertainty of meaning you think you've been something down but then you discover its meaning is elusive so i think it's puts provision ality and doubt at the center of the exhibition. there and there's also this very strong focus obviously on drawing you're one of your your main way of understanding the world and as something very reminiscent of childhood what is it about drawing as such that so vital to your artistic identity and if their innocence about it perhaps that's common to all of your explorations in other media i wouldn't say that this an innocence but there's a it's about thinking through the body when a child will say the make a drawing it's not necessarily about being able to follow a thought and get it down on paper it's somewhere between a desire to have an image and seeing what it is that your hand produces so it's

both about thinking in the moment thinking aloud withdrawing but it's also allowing the muscles the impulses the i'm conscious thoughts to shape the work that you are making and for me drawing is the most practical and the most efficient and the most natural and physical of forms to work so it's not all paint and it's not a computer it's the hand and a piece of charcoal and some paper. that's very interesting and this is of course one of the largest presentations of your work today that spans over 40 years of your production how do you feel when you see it all pull together there into this particular narrative especially against the backdrop of this or extraordinary year with things like the pandemic and obviously the racial unrest in much of the world did anything reg surprising perhaps a resonate in a new way well well you know the exhibition was 1st shown in cape town

a year ago it was the year before the. good one of the major pieces in it is is a piece which is about look this pandemic but it would made 5 or 6 years ago at the time of the a boner epidemic in west africa but it's images of the dance of death of death leading people the way they would in a medieval drawing and to dance against it the way villages would dance to let the play part of them by obviously has very strong echoes with where we are today that's part of the fact of covert being that exhibition as opened in both but it's not yet been possible to travel from johannesburg to. so i'm hoping to get the during the run of the exhibition. and to see how it feels in a different space obviously an exhibition changes every time it moves it's a mixture between the work that's there and the space it's shown in and and it looks beautiful and dr hunter i'm sure it does not just quit a politics play such

a huge role in your work and of course your own biography how do you see the political role of our ted at this stage of your career. well i'm interested in an art that can reflect things which aren't usually very political or that is to say that can affect the ambiguity the paradoxes the contradictions of the political so normally when one thinks of political art one thinks of something the clear agenda with just statement that the single minded and for me that doesn't reflect the absurd and that in the paradoxical in the world some interest in an art which has a space for not knowing quite what something might mean while standing that something can mean one thing at one moment and shift its meaning with a series of different circumstances uncertain images 2 to reflect the uncertainty of our times william can trades in hamburg until april 18th and thank you so much for joining us today william can trade in my pleasure great britain. well

just one week to go until the u.s. election and in the lead up we're gauging the mood of multiple artists and creatives to get their take on a polarized america. is an american born playwright and novelist of pakistani heritage and his newest book draws on his own life to tell the story of a nation coming apart at the scenes we live in a corporate totalitarian autocracy their doctors books have been translated into more than 20 languages he's also written award winning plays like disgraced. anything going. wrong. yes. in his new novel homeland elegies describes the experiences of an author he named he had whose father is a doctor who treated donald trump he has become

a trump supporter. the writer won't reveal what in the book is fiction and what is fact but his view of america is clearly expressed in its pages. i think in the last 50 years and this is the story that i tell in the last 50 years some notion of a collective good began to evaporate and what rose out of that dissolution. was a commitment a fierce commitment to the individual. i what i want what i need america is about protecting my rights my rights to have a gun if i wanted to make as much money as i want to use whatever bathroom i want it's all the same that's not a vision of a collective society. until recently new york was known as a center of art and culture the city house and blaze trails that the rest of the

world follow now survival especially the economic kind is the main priority and not just for artists in 2016 almost 80 percent of new yorkers voted democrat donald trump is a republican president who has been vindictive. if he's reelected residents here fear it will become even harder to get federal funding to fix the coronavirus crisis and the u.s. has already been seen recurring on the last for instance over black lives matter and over measures aimed at stemming the spread of covert 92 words civil war are frequently used what will this country's future look like if it continues down this path. the possibility for real violence in the country it's real that could happen but i don't know how the next few weeks are going to unfold but there is a scenario in which contested power leads to trump calling

for resistance and if that happens then i think the gloves come off. regardless of who wins the election many find it difficult to feel optimistic about the current situation and what lies ahead for america difficult but not impossible . i'm optimistic about the present i'm optimistic about. the joy that one can experience here and now with those one loves doing things that one loves to do helping others. but i don't think. any of us is going to escape death so i'm probably ultimately pessimistic. i mean that's what you get when you ask me a question like that. well in her nearly 60 year career barbie's been a princess and a storm trooper and in mexico for the upcoming day of the dead festival there's

a traditional incarnation of the iconic doll with us goal of design something fancy as a tribute to mexico's most colorful annual celebration but critics feel its cultural appropriation of big name brand cashing in on a ritual worthy of respect till the day of the dead is celebrated on november 1st and 2nd and is on unesco's list of intangible cultural heritage and interesting debates and food for thought to close the show thanks for watching and until next time for muscle burning and chips. and.

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