2nd Hand Reading

In *2nd Hand Reading* (2013), William Kentridge layers India ink, graphite, and coloured pencil over collaged pages from a Universal Technological Dictionary, pierced with sewing pins to create a tactile, accumulative surface. The work reflects Kentridge's signature practice of building meaning through erasure, addition, and the repurposing of found materials, here drawing on the loaded language of encyclopedic knowledge as both backdrop and subject. The sewing pins introduce a physical, almost ritualistic dimension, suggesting acts of marking, mending, or fixing ideas in place — evoking themes of memory, history, and the fragile ordering of human understanding.