You may want to take a closer look. There's more to this painting than meets the eye. And yes, it's an acrylic painting of a man, but I didn't paint it on canvas. I painted it directly on top of the man.
仔細睇下 呢幅畫其實唔只表面咁簡單 雖然,呢幅係畫一個男人嘅亞加力畫 但係我冇畫喺畫布上 我直接畫喺嗰個男人身上
What I do in my art is I skip the canvas altogether, and if I want to paint your portrait, I'm painting it on you, physically on you. That also means you're probably going to end up with an earful of paint, because I need to paint your ear on your ear. Everything in this scene, the person, the clothes, chairs, wall, gets covered in a mask of paint that mimics what's directly below it, and in this way, I'm able to take a three-dimensional scene and make it look like a two-dimensional painting. I can photograph it from any angle, and it will still look 2D. There's no Photoshop here. This is just a photo of one of my three-dimensional paintings.
我唔用畫布 如果我想畫你嘅肖像 我會直接畫喺你身上 即係話你會被搽上好多顏料 包括你嘅耳仔 因為我需要喺你嘅耳仔上面畫你嘅耳仔 呢度所有嘢︰人、衫、凳、牆 全都油上一層顏料 咁樣係為咗直接模仿人同物件 透過呢一種方式 我就可以將一個立體環境整到平面畫咁 就算我由唔同角度影相 出嚟嘅效果都仍然係平面咁 Photoshop 我都冇用過 呢張係我其中一幅立體畫嘅相 你可能會問︰
You might be wondering how I came up with this idea of turning people into paintings. But originally, this had nothing to do with either people or paint. It was about shadows. I was fascinated with the absence of light, and I wanted to find a way that I could give it materiality and pin it down before it changed. I came up with the idea of painting shadows. I loved that I could hide within this shadow my own painted version, and it would be almost invisible until the light changed, and all of a sudden my shadow would be brought to the light.
點解我會有呢啲諗法將人變成畫 但其實一開始嘅時候 我冇諗過對人或者顏料做啲乜嘢 最初諗法只係同影有關 我覺得冇光線呢樣嘢好吸引 我想搵一種方法可以令影實物化 喺影改變之前將佢定型 於我就想畫低啲影 我好想可以喺影裏面 收埋油上咗顏料嘅我 令我可以幾乎隱形 直至光線唔同咗,然後突然間 我嘅影會出現喺光線之下 我想睇下仲有咩地方我可以畫影嘅
I wanted to think about what else I could put shadows on, and I thought of my friend Bernie. But I didn't just want to paint the shadows. I also wanted to paint the highlights and create a mapping on his body in greyscale. I had a very specific vision of what this would look like, and as I was painting him, I made sure to follow that very closely. But something kept on flickering before my eyes. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at. And then when I took that moment to take a step back, magic. I had turned my friend into a painting. I couldn't have foreseen that when I wanted to paint a shadow, I would pull out this whole other dimension, that I would collapse it, that I would take a painting and make it my friend and then bring him back to a painting.
然後我諗起我朋友 Bernie 但我唔只想畫影,我仲想做到加強 同埋喺佢身上用灰階顏色畫 我好清楚作品會係點嘅樣 所以當我畫緊佢嘅時候 我好小心跟足我嘅構思去畫 但有啲嘢一直喺我眼前閃 我當時唔係好清楚我睇到嘅係咩嘢 然後當我褪後去睇嗰陣 神奇嘅嘢就發生咗 我將我嘅朋友變成咗一幅畫 我最初諗唔到當我畫影嘅時候 我會將另一個空間成個帶咗出嚟 然後再將個人融返入去 估唔到我畫畫會變成畫我嘅朋友 甚至將朋友擺返落畫裡邊
I was a little conflicted though, because I was so excited about what I'd found, but I was just about to graduate from college with a degree in political science, and I'd always had this dream of going to Washington, D.C., and sitting at a desk and working in government. (Laughter) Why did this have to get in the way of all that?
我心裡面有啲矛盾 因為一方面我為到 我自己發現嘅嘢覺得興奮 但另一方面,我嗰時啱啱大學畢業 攞咗政治學學位 以前成日夢想去華盛頓做政府工 (笑聲) 為咩我會提起呢件事呢?
I made the tough decision of going home after graduation and not going up to Capitol Hill, but going down to my parents' basement and making it my job to learn how to paint. I had no idea where to begin. The last time I'd painted, I was 16 years old at summer camp, and I didn't want to teach myself how to paint by copying the old masters or stretching a canvas and practicing over and over again on that surface, because that's not what this project was about for me. It was about space and light.
係因為我做咗個好艱難嘅決定 決定畢業之後放棄到美國國會工作 反而返咗去我父母屋企嘅地下室學畫畫 我當時唔知道邊度入手 對上一次我畫畫嘅時候係 16 歲 當時喺夏令營裡面 當時我唔想透過抄襲以前大師作品 或係攤開畫布反複咁喺畫布上面畫 嚟自學畫畫 因為對我嚟講,畫畫唔應該係咁 畫畫應該係關於空間同光線
My early canvases ended up being things that you wouldn't expect to be used as canvas, like fried food. It's nearly impossible to get paint to stick to the grease in an egg. (Laughter) Even harder was getting paint to stick to the acid in a grapefruit. It just would erase my brush strokes like invisible ink. I'd put something down, and instantly it would be gone.
我早期嘅畫布都係啲你諗唔到嘅嘢 就好似用煎炸食物做畫布咁 所以係幾乎冇可能 將顏料搽上雞蛋嘅油脂度 (笑聲) 更加難去將顏料黐喺柚子嘅果酸度 因為果酸只會抹走筆觸嘅顏料 就好似隱形墨水一樣 當我畫一筆,顏料就咁唔見咗 假如我想喺人上面畫…
And if I wanted to paint on people, well, I was a little bit embarrassed to bring people down into my studio and show them that I spent my days in a basement putting paint on toast. It just seemed like it made more sense to practice by painting on myself. One of my favorite models actually ended up being a retired old man who not only didn't mind sitting still and getting the paint in his ears, but he also didn't really have much embarrassment about being taken out into very public places for exhibition, like the Metro.
我會帶人嚟我嘅工作室 畀佢哋知道我嘅日子喺地下室過 畀佢哋知道我喺多士上面油顏料 但咁樣我會覺得尷尬 似乎喺我身上練習畫畫更加適當 其中一個我最鍾意嘅模特兒 係一位退休老人 佢不但唔介意坐定定唔郁 由得顏料搽喺佢耳仔裏面 而且仲冇因為我帶佢出去公眾場所 好似地鐵咁——展出而尷尬 成個過程中我有好多樂趣
I was having so much fun with this process. I was teaching myself how to paint in all these different styles, and I wanted to see what else I could do with it. I came together with a collaborator, Sheila Vand, and we had the idea of creating paintings in a more unusual surface, and that was milk. We got a pool. We filled it with milk. We filled it with Sheila. And I began painting. And the images were always completely unexpected in the end, because I could have a very specific image about how it would turn out, I could paint it to match that, but the moment that Sheila laid back into the milk, everything would change. It was in constant flux, and we had to, rather than fight it, embrace it, see where the milk would take us and compensate to make it even better. Sometimes, when Sheila would lay down in the milk, it would wash all the paint off of her arms, and it might seem a little bit clumsy, but our solution would be, okay, hide your arms. And one time, she got so much milk in her hair that it just smeared all the paint off of her face. All right, well, hide your face. And we ended up with something far more elegant than we could have imagined, even though this is essentially the same solution that a frustrated kid uses when he can't draw hands, just hiding them in the pockets.
我教自己點樣用唔同風格畫 同時我想知道我仲有咩可以試 我今日帶咗一位拍檔,Sheila Vand 我哋都覺得畫 可以喺唔平凡嘅介面上面畫 嗰個係牛奶 我哋搵嚟咗一個水池 我哋將牛奶倒入去 Sheila 都走埋入去 然後我開始畫 畫出嚟嘅嘢永遠都係意想不到 雖然我腦裏面有一幅好確切嘅圖 好清楚會畫成點 我亦會跟著幅圖去畫出嚟 但係當 Sheila 用背脊 浸入牛奶嘅一刻 所有嘢都變 啲嘢流動緊 而我哋用「既來之,則安之」 嘅方式處理 唔係要同牛奶抗衡 而係順著牛奶嘅流動作出修補 令幅畫更加好 有時 Sheila 成個人浸入牛奶 牛奶會沖走佢手臂嘅顏料 令到睇起嚟有啲笨拙 我哋嘅解決方法係,將佢嘅手臂都遮住 仲有一次,佢嘅頭髮吸咗好多牛奶 令面上面嘅顏料通通都溶咗 所以我嗰陣話︰ 「好,咁嘅話,將你塊臉遮著。」 最後我哋嘅作品比當初構思嘅更加靚 呢個方法同小朋友因為畫唔到手 所以將手畫到插咗入袋一樣
When we started out on the milk project, and when I started out, I couldn't have foreseen that I would go from pursuing my dream in politics and working at a desk to tripping over a shadow and then turning people into paintings and painting on people in a pool of milk. But then again, I guess it's also not unforeseeable that you can find the strange in the familiar, as long as you're willing to look beyond what's already been brought to light, that you can see what's below the surface, hiding in the shadows, and recognize that there can be more there than meets the eye.
當我哋開始牛奶計劃時 我預料唔到我嘅將來 會由我追政治夢、坐喺辦公室工作 到誤打誤撞發現「影子」呢個概念 繼而將人哋變成畫作 喺牛奶池裡面畫人 話說回來,我諗 你喺熟識嘅事物裡面 搵到奇怪嘅嘢根本係有可能 只要你唔好剩係望擺喺眼前嘅事物 而係望事物蘊藏咗嘅嘢 埋藏喺陰影嘅嘢 你會發現更多嘅可能 多謝各位
Thank you.
(掌聲)
(Applause)