Composite from Waiting for the Sibyl (Let Us Be Sensible)

William Kentridge
Composite from Waiting for the Sibyl (Let Us Be Sensible), 2020
Indian ink, pencil and charcoal drawings on found pages
Work: 112 x 121 cm

'Let Us Be Sensible' forms part of a series of large composite ink drawings that Kentridge created in preparation for his new opera, Waiting for the Sibyl, which premiered at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in September 2019. The opera was created in response to Alexander Calder’s Work in Progress, the only operatic work created by Calder and staged at the Opera in Rome in 1968. Waiting for the Sibyl follows the story of the Cumean Sibyl, a priestess who wrote her prophecies on oak leaves. Sibyl would leave a pile of the oak leaves at the mouth of her cave from which people would seek the oak leaf with their fate or fortune. Inevitably, a gust of wind would blow the leaves out of order, leaving the seekers uncertain as to whether they chose their fate or the destiny of another