The

power

of

transformation:

an

immersive,

thrillingly

layered,

journey

into

William

Kentridge’s

sculpture

Midway through William Kentridge's film series SelfPortrait as a Coffee-Pot (2023), in which the South African

artist plays several versions of himself at work in the

studio, Kentridge Two sits astride a sculpted horse

standing to attention on a drawing table. Its limbs and

neck are made of old-school wooden tripod legs and its

body of a cardboard roll. Torn pieces of black paper glued

on to the wall behind the sculpture sketch out its head

and tail in a bit of trompe-l'oeil bulk: were the camera to

shift, the horse would lose its head as the illusion

dissolved.

"What are you doing up there?" asks Kentridge One, who

is standing on a stepstool, his hands in his pockets, a hint

of disdain in the slant of his shoulders. "I'm admiring the

view," says Kentridge Two. "Trying to avoid the

embarrassment of scale."

This horse, replete with its saddle and cutouts — not to

mention the wider studio effervescence that lends that

Coffee-Pot series such power — are now on show at

Yorkshire Sculpture Park in a multi-decade survey of

Kentridge's sculptural practice . Titled The Pull of Gravity,

this is the first such show to focus on his 3D work outside

South Africa.

Taking over the underground gallery and the grounds

outside it, the exhibition brings together two large-scale

film works, More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015) and Oh To

Believe In Another World (2022), playing sequentially across

a seven-screen installation, that Self Portrait as a CoffeePot series, and about three dozen sculptural works,

including four of his largest bronzes to date. Kentridge’s

long-term collaborator and set designer Sabine

Theunissen's exhibition design uses felt surfaces,

plywood plinths and black heavy-duty runners on the

floor to create an immersive journey into Kentridge's

world.