AustLit

'This article is a piece of creative non-fiction that explores the construction of place in the multimedia installation work of artist William Kentridge. The article explores the installation Black Box, an acclaimed miniature theatre work that traces the roots of the racist ideology of the Nazis back to the German massacre of the indigenous Herero in south-west Africa in 1905 and the methods of racial management that prefigured the development of the Nazi concentration camps. Through the exploration of the German colonial adventure, the article raises questions about the links between German colonial policies and those developed in Australia.

The installation is an experimental work and the article works with a performative writing style to evoke the dynamics of the artwork as it oscillates between historical detail and audiovisual phantasmagoria. As such, the piece experiments with structures of rhythm and repetition and the use of excess in a way that mirrors the kaleidoscopic montage that characterises the installation.' (Author's abstract)