Erased but not Gone

There is something particular of the charcoal animations of William Kentridge, he erases.  Where most animators would have simply drawn a new picture from scratch, Kentridge erases and modifies the previous picture. 

At first this was very frustrating to me.  Why was he so cheap and so lazy not to simply purchase a new canvas and start again.  You can clearly see the a faded remnant of the erased image.  Then I realized this was what made his artwork so significant.  I believe he was trying to portray something significant by his erasing.

I believe Kentridge intended to make the process behind his animations reflect how life operates.  Instead of having discrete, localized moments each day, we have moments that build on one another.  We move forward in time, but it's impossible to completely leave the past behind.  A blurry and faded image of the past lingers at all times providing a contrast with the clear image we have in the present.

The animation that represents this best was tower falling.  Even after the tower is completely leveled to the ground, a faded image persists.  This represents how the memory and significance of the tower remains even if the tower itself doesn't.