Does anyone remember William Kentridge? Not the famous artist, but the artist who legally changed her name to resemble his. The idea driving this crazy art gag in the late noughties was to direct our attention to the work of Roelien Brink, which would ordinarily be overlooked - she's not as famous as Kentridge and believed she was unlikely to receive the same kind of attention as established male artists.Many artists have followed in Kentridge's footsteps in less obvious ways and to great acclaim in their own right.Robin Rhode's form of animation, which embraces a form of erasure and (re)construction, would be unthinkable had Kentridge not preceded him.Those who work in charcoal, such as Themba Khumalo and Phillemon Hlungwani, currently exhibiting at Gallery 2 and Circa respectively, are haunted by the Kentridge legacy."Kentridge doesn't own charcoal drawing," is the refrain you're likely to hear in response. And indeed Kentridge can't claim to be the influence driving every charcoal work. Yet, it's interesting to contemplate what they have in common with the Kentridge mode.It's not only the charcoal medium Hlungwani adopts that brings Kentridge's drawings to mind, it's also a profusion of dotted arcs spreading horizontally across both the urban and rural settings he captures.In Kentridge's drawings these marks are remnants of lines he's previously drawn that have been erased - a by-product of his process of drawing and redrawing for the animations. In this way they do not denote only movement but also the invisible narratives tied to the Johannesburg landscapes that featured - and still feature - in his art.Hlungwani's marks are more stylised than Kentridge's - he turns these remnants into uniform arcs - and exploits them to suggest movement, counteracting the static nature of his drawing.This ties in with the idea of travel, the back and forth between the two landscapes that are his subject matter - rural Giyani and the township of Alexandra. He doesn't draw just from Kentridge's legacy but also that of Gerard Sekoto, Durant Sihlali and a string of other artists who captured scenes of township life before the motif became commercialised and sold at traffic lights.Hlungwani's deft execution and the scale of his drawings and his ability to adopt modes associated with celebrated artists have allowed him to retrieve this motif, restore it and make us pay attention to it again.His art reminds us that there are certain things about this country that haven't altered despite the change of government.Khumalo uses charcoal to capture ordinary scenes of Johannesburg city life - though life in this city is hardly ordinary or predictable.Trouble brews at the surface in a drawing depicting a mass protest or a gathering in a city street. One scene recalls Kentridge's 1991 drawings for the film Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old, which depicts a mass protest in the street.There are many thematic links besides the charcoal, such as the electric pylons surrounded by a flood of water - two recurring Kentridge motifs - evident in one of Khumalo's most striking drawings.It's not that Khumalo or Hlungwani are poor imitators of Kentridge's aesthetic - they're highly skilled artists.In fact some critics argue that their drawing skills are superior to Kentridge's. The question these artists prompt us to ask is why Kentridge's aesthetic, his motifs and his signature continue to be referenced by artists and critics alike? It may not have anything to do with his fame and popularity, but could be because he found a language to articulate our specific sense of physical and psychic dislocation from the land, one another, the strife and distress that bleeds into our everyday existence and the dark pall that history casts on our society."My Side of the Story" by Themba Khumalo shows at Gallery 2 until April 2. From Giyani to Alexandra is on at Circa Gallery until April 16...