Rap culture and William Kentridge
William Kentridge, The Guardian
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William Kentridge, RCA
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Kentridge Show at RCA
"this was just a kind of therapy that I was doing. Is anyone ever going to be interested? Did I have anything to say?"
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"there was a huge relaxation. I could now make art for myself, and if it was interesting for me and a couple of friends, then it had to take its chance in the world. That’s kind of been the principle of working since then."
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-William Kentridge
William Kentridge, CCCB
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Like what Kentridge said during an interview, "there was a huge relaxation. I could now make art for myself.." The time felt right for Kentridge to start making "art" again as he gets settled down; similar to his situation, the period felt right to be brave in answering questions that I have been dodging all my life to face: do I hate my brother based of my assumption of his idea on me, that I was no good and simply "copying" the way he was living back then. It is a way for me to eliminate self hate and just be able to embrace brotherhood again; also, to stop enjoying art only for its therapeutic process.
William Kentridge's raw and expressive typography usage displays the desire of story-telling with no "filtration". The contrast in line density, type sizes, and perspective have made his work conversational and personal. The "Twins" series depicts moments of "questioning" when identities get mixed up; and similar to Kentridge, it depicts an effort in discovering and holding discourse.
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Hip Hop culture, "stage for the voiceless"
Though I've never been pressed and gone homeless, I felt like it when my ideas aren't getting digested by others. It makes me hungry in expressing more bluntly, ferociously, and critically. Montana 300 has been one of my favorite rappers since YG, Young Thug and Lil Wayne. His style is like a starved lion setting eyes on his first prey: brutal, swift, and merciless. It is the desperation in Montana's voice that draws me in- people might say rap illuminates no "class", and a genre only for the underprivileged. I politely, beg to differ: the "class" is a set of attributes generated by society. It applies to every aspect of our daily life: habit, manner, spending, food, and of course, gender. Rap is like tasting food without seasoning: flavor from the mother of earth, above, and down below. To appreciate rap is to understand human's drive in story telling/expression.
Montana 300, "Daring KKK", chicago