Written by Roxy Kaczmarek and Jesse Shepstone

 

 

In 2022, during the development of The Old Gods Have Retired by William Kentridge, the idea of exploring its individual panels as stand-alone works began to take shape. This direction evolved further in 2024, following the completion of editioning for the larger multiple plate print. Working closely with Kentridge and the David Krut Workshop team, printer Roxy Kaczmarek led the editioning of these new prints. 

William Kentridge and Roxy Kaczmarek discussing the composition of pieces involved in It Reminds Me of Something I Can’t Remember, 2025.  

 

 

The artist selected two panels from the original composition to be launched as distinct works. Similarly to The Old Gods Have Retired – a monumental work printed on twelve overlapping sheets from direct gravure plates, all combining to form a cohesive yet layered and complex image – the single plate images are pieced together from multiple fragments: collaged and hand-painted chine-collé papers and dislocated textual elements. The texts, which are drawn from Kentridge’s notebooks, literary fragments, and historical references, float across the composition, contributing to a dense and multi-facetted surface. In some cases, the collage elements deliberately spill over the image area, breaking the traditional picture frame and extending the narrative space beyond the edge of the paper.  

The Old Gods Have Retired, 2022, 12 Panel Print, 175cmx210cm.  

In these newly published works, the collage elements break the frame of the original image, extending beyond the borders of the page. These interventions give rise to entirely new, autonomous narratives, offering fresh ways to engage with the themes of memory, time, and fragmentation that run throughout the larger work. 

Left: It reminds me of something I can’t remember and Right: You will be remembered in the way of 1957. Editions of 16 each, photogravure and sugarlift aquatint etching with collage on Hahnemühle Natural 300 gsm,  Image Size: 58 x 74.9 cm approx., Paper size:  66.7 x 84.5cm  

 

Above: Editioned text pieces printed on an assortment of papers, some of which were hand-painted. Each piece will be glued, cut and collage onto the final print.   

Roxy Kaczmarek tracing the B.A.T. of It reminds me of something I can’t remember to use as a reference when collaging the editioned prints.   

 

In these newly published works, such formal disruptions give rise to entirely new, autonomous narratives. The result is a pair of richly layered prints that offer fresh ways to engage with the recurring themes of memory, time, and fragmentation that permeate the larger work. 

These individual panels mark an exciting evolution of The Old Gods Have Retired, allowing new stories to emerge from within the monumental whole. They echo the forest-like complexity and interconnectedness that underpin both the image and its making. The fragmented text elements, scattered or displaced across the image, are not merely decorative but carry traces of meaning, ambiguity, and poetic resonance. The text elements used in these prints are variations of those found in the larger work, The Old Gods Have Retired. While William reuses the same phrases, he alters their size and occasionally their shape to offer the viewer a subtly different reading experience. To further distinguish these two editions, he introduces new collage elements and reconfigures the composition and combinations of components entirely, creating prints that feel distinct from their counterparts in The Old Gods Have Retired. 

The subject matter of trees and branches has long played a significant role in the development of Kentridge’s visual language. Appearing in various forms across his diverse body of work, the tree has carried rich metaphorical weight and served as a powerful trope in his multidisciplinary practice. As Kentridge once reflected, “a tree you could disassemble into its pages and hide in a library, like hiding a book in a forest.” 

This metaphor finds even deeper resonance in the context of Johannesburg—Kentridge’s hometown and the primary setting for much of his work—often described as the largest human-made forest in the world. The interplay between place, metaphor, and material forms the conceptual foundation of The Old Gods Have Retired (2022), from which these new works originate.