A Shadow of a Shadow is a survey of 17 performances created by Kentridge from the late 1980s to the present, from his interpretations of King Ubu—the outrageous protagonist from Alfred Jarry’s play Ubu Roi (1896)—and Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, to Kentridge’s original works such as The Head and the Load (2018) about Africa and Africans in World War I. On view are objects and artworks produced for the development and presentation of these performance projects: drawings, stage backdrops, animations, puppets, props, costumes and installations inspired by theatrical illusions.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from a play by thirteenth-century playwright and puppeteer Ibn Daniyal, who fled Iraq to escape the Mongol invasions. Prompted by the sense that the world was ending, Ibn Daniyal created shadow plays that ridiculed authorities and exposed corrupt social mores