The Magic Flute (and learning to play it) The Theatre Royale de Monnaie, Brussels
Arhan Virdi
William Kentridge’s Learning To Play The Flute is a strange, busy and imposing collection of images. At first glance it appears more cipher than teaching tool; an abstract documentation of the process of learning.
Kentridge will be showing this work as part of a series used in "The Magic Flute" opera–his interpretation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute–which he has directed, and will be show at The Theatre Royale de Monnaie, in Brussels this September.
The sketches and plans for Kentridge’s performance (on display this summer in his native city, Johannesburg, South Africa) expose the blurry erasures of past ideas–they map his creative process. We are learning how William Kentridge plays.
I revisit Learning To Play The Flute, 2003, which rests on MoMA’s walls; and I revisit Kentridge’s process–
Thick, black strokes cover the structured, oh so linear content of encyclopedia pages with symbols, figures and streaks. A hanging bulb, an old-fashioned flash camera and several candles scatter shards of light over the canvas–their small sharp rays determine what we see, guide what we see. And yet, of course, black paint is used to depict these rays of light. What represents illumination actually blots our view.
An upright and intricately feathered owl is at the center of the work–one of the very few detailed images in the whole piece. A camera throws out an image of a single, long, thin, straight object–it looks awfully flute-like. The camera projects its image through one of the owl’s eyes, not its own lens. Kentridge plays with the way in which we share and perceive information: do we interpret based on internal figuring or do we depend on illumination from outside forces?
Cogs and ropes decorate the canvas like Christmas decorations. There are six circular cogs etched into the work. This apparent system of strings appears to unite each scene on the canvas. We must approach with systemic care to link and interpret the chaos of images. And we are left glorying in the process not assessing an answer.
