"True to their name, the porters are moving stuff. They are nomads, refugees, asylum seekers or maybe even adventurers. They seem more industrious than driven, but mostly they are on the move, set in motion by forces beyond their control. They are universal, but you could locate them at any point on the maps, and they would become specific, displaced by this or that invasion, liberation, revolution, colonialism or economic crisis."
Tapestry is one of the oldest and most expressive forms of woven textile art, most suited for creating intricate pictorial designs. Its origins trace back to ancient civilisations in Egypt, Asia, and Pre-Columbian America, each developing their tapestry traditions independently. William Kentridge’s tapestries engage with this rich history, while challenging some of its traditional expectations. They embrace the narrative element of Western tapestries but eschew the conventional associations with luxury and status.
Kentridge’s Porter Series: Amérique Septentrionale (Bundle on Back) demonstrates the artist's ability to blur the boundaries between craft and art and to defy the categorisation of artistic practices. These tapestries depict a world in flux, featuring black silhouettes against maps of various global regions. The figures, reminiscent of processions in Kentridge’s videos, books, and sculptures, appear to momentarily pause in their journey, embodying themes of labour, migration, and human movement. The porter, central to this particular series, focuses on physical labour whilst the backgrounds feature nineteenth century maps, evoking a period of increased human mobility that continues to define our times.
Kentridge’s work highlights migration as a pivotal aspect of modern life, driven by diverse motivations from open-minded exploration to forced displacement due to famine or discrimination. The random markings on the silhouettes reflect the tensions arising from the transient intersections of people and places. The porters’ burdens symbolise the interplay of physical exertion with emotional and mental engagement, revealing an inner world of complex emotions disrupted by harsh realities.
Each tapestry begins with a drawing, which is photographed, enlarged, modified, and translated into a cartoon that guides the weaving. This two-month process involves close collaboration between Kentridge and the skilled weavers who produce the tapestries. The journey starts in a Swaziland cottage, where South African mohair is carded and spun, emphasising the labour-intensive nature of the craft. These tapestries exist then both as drawings and as textiles, simultaneously affirming and negating their materiality.