The Refusal of Time

Overview

Fresh from residencies at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Met, MoMA, The Refusal ­of Time is a genre-bending mixture of theatre, film, sculpture, drawing, music, written word and dance.

South African artist William Kentridge describes the installation as ‘a piece about the nature of time’. In reality, The Refusal of Time is a trip through the wires of science, from Newton to String Theory. The 30-minute, multi screen installation is an immersive, visual coup of the senses - all powered by a seemingly alive mechanical machine nicknamed 'The Elephant'. You can hear Kentridge spin a yarn about the mind-blowing installation here.

The work was inspired by Kentridge’s various conversations with Harvard science historian Peter Galison, who’s stories compelled Kentridge to weave various multi-media tales about mankind's endless struggle to control the tides of time.