Kentridge likes copies of images, each a variation on reality fluctuations. Sometimes he makes triptychs, other times diptychs as in the Picnic/Panic etchings produced for Sleeping on Glass (1999).
For the diptych Picnic/Panic, Kentridge contrasted cups and saucers on the facing pages of text taken from different chapters in The Principles of Electronics. One version has the legend Panic on the right and Picnic on the left above the cup and saucer. The other version has the legend Picnic on the left page and Panic on the facing page. Which of these versions precedes the other is unknown. It’s like trying to figure out which comes first or some order of importance that cannot be resolved—and there are sixty multiples of this series. Ward Mintz, the curator, playfully suggests that Kentridge’s title might explain his moods, which side of the bed he might get up from, or the powerful effect of alliteration.
“Picnic/Panic” (1999), etching and crayon on chine collé
paper.
There is, however, a deeper motive, perhaps to suggest the political turmoil of Kentridge’s native South Africa. During an interview with Peter Burchett, Kentridge said that he “never intended to make illustrations of apartheid” but that some of his works are “spawned by and feed off the brutal society left in its wake.” The Picnic/Panic series seems to be one of those works that suggest the unfortunate oppressive history of apartheid during which South Africa was a land of Picnic for Whites and the land of Panic for Blacks. Though the Apartheid laws were repealed in 1991, and there were open elections in 1994, the political situation fluctuated during the period of reconciliation after. Kentridge is registering these fluctuations from Picnic to Panic as if it were an electric current registering on a meter.
The cups look empty, but who knows? The printed text is from The Principles of Electronics.
See William Kentridge. Sleeping on Glass (1999); Fiona Godfrey. “William Kentridge as a printmaker,” Universal Archive. London: Southbank Centre; http://issuu.com/aberystwytharts/docs/kentridge_education_pack_final; Peter Burchett, http://vimeo.com/13210477