In two parts

 BLU     http://www.blublu.org

Two artists whose work I admire. I came across BLU last month and immediately thought of William Kentridge—a comparison I imagine is common. The thought came to me when I saw the “ghosting” in BLU's MUTO video (how the characters and objects leave a physical trace of their positions from the prior stop frames). I've always loved the ghosting in Kentridge's work; it's such a powerful way to formally develop the themes Kentridge is interested in: South African memory and the resonances Apartheid. For BLU's videos, the ghosts are effective too, in a similar although not identical way. To me, they resemble the swatches and blocks of paint left by property owners or cities that paint over graffiti or street art to discourage their makers. Even if they use the exact same paint it never blends in perfectly. You can tell at least that there was some image or message left there at one time. Often you can see it faintly underneath. These paint swatches resonate for their neighborhoods and provide some sense of layered, indelible memory—the overlapping of opposing forces—the history of conflicts, crimes, and the human impulses to gouge & plaster over.

William Kentridge