Notes

"The Ubu Tells the Truth etchings were the starting point for a theatre production Ubu & The Truth Commission (1997). The Sleeper prints were made after the theatre production was completed. I had worked on a series of messy drawings of a naked man, sometimes enclosed by the white Ubu line drawing, trying to get some of the feel of the theatre production in them. With the first set of drypoints I had used a thumbprint and printed the heel of my hand to suggest the flesh texture. With the large drawings one has to pull shape and texture into the drawing on a larger scale. I wheeled a bicycle across the paper, hit it with charcoal-impregnated silk rope, invited children and cats to walk over it, spattered it freely with pigment. The Sleeper prints used a range of materials and objects placed in soft ground to try to effect the same damage upon the paper."¹

Edition of 50, only 30 numbered editions completed. Printed by Jack Shirreff an Andrew Smith, 107 Workshop. Published by David Krut Fine Art, London.²

¹ Bronwyn Law-Viljoen. (2006) William Kentridge Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishers. Page 66.

² Ibid.

Literature

cf. Bronwyn Law-Viljoen. (2006) William Kentridge Prints, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishers, a comparative discussion about the Sleeper Series on page 66. Another example from the edition illustrated on page 67.