I really love color. I notice it everywhere and in everything. My family makes fun of me because I like to use colors with elusive-sounding names, like celadon ...
我热爱色彩。 我随时随地都在观察色彩。 我的家人常常开我的玩笑, 因为我喜欢用名字晦涩的颜色, 比如青瓷......
(Laughter)
(笑声)
ecru ... carmine. Now, if you haven't noticed, I am black, thank you --
淡褐色...... 胭脂红。 如果你还没注意到, 我是黑人,是的——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
and when you grow up in a segregated city as I have, like Chicago, you're conditioned to believe that color and race can never be separate. There's hardly a day that goes by that somebody is not reminding you of your color. Racism is my city's vivid hue.
而如果你像我一样 在一个种族分化严重的城市长大, 像是芝加哥, 你会清晰地意识到 肤色和种族是不可分割的。 人们不再关注你的肤色 几乎是不可能的。 种族歧视是我家乡的鲜明特色。
Now, we can all agree that race is a socially constructed phenomenon, but it's often hard to see it in our everyday existence. Its pervasiveness is everywhere. The neighborhoods I grew up in were filled with a kind of culturally coded beauty. Major commercial corridors were lined with brightly painted storefronts that competed for black consumer dollars. The visual mash-ups of corner stores and beauty supply houses, currency exchanges, are where I actually, inadvertently learned the foundational principles of something I would later come to know is called color theory. I can remember being pretty intimidated by this term in college -- color theory. All these stuffy old white guys with their treatises and obscure terminologies. I'd mastered each one of their color palettes and associated principles. Color theory essentially boils down to the art and science of using color to form compositions and spaces. It's not so complicated.
大家都知道种族是一种社会现象, 但是日常生活中 人们常常忽视了这一点。 种族特色随处可见。 在我长大的社区, 充满了各种各样人文景观。 主要的商业区充满了 颜色鲜艳的招牌, 来吸引黑人消费者。 街上充斥着各色商店的视觉混搭, 街角商铺,美容店, 还有货币兑换商店。 在这些地方,我不经意间 掌握了一些基本原理, 被称为色彩理论, 这是我后来才发现的。 我仍记得这个 让我受到惊吓的名字—— 色彩理论。 那些沉闷的白人大佬, 他们的论文, 还有那些朦胧的术语, 我掌握了每一组配色 以及相关的原理。 色彩理论本质上可以归结于艺术与科学, 用颜色来体现布局以及空间。 这并不复杂。
This was my bible in college. Josef Albers posited a theory about the color red, and it always has stuck with me. He argues that the iconic color of a cola can is red, and that in fact all of us can agree that it's red but the kinds of reds that we imagine are as varied as the number of people in this room. So imagine that. This color that we've all been taught since kindergarten is primary -- red, yellow, blue -- in fact is not primary, is not irreducible, is not objective but quite subjective. What?
色彩原理就是我大学中的圣经。 约瑟夫·阿尔伯斯提出了 一个关于红色的理论, 它总是困扰着我。 他说可乐罐的标志性颜色是红色, 事实上,我们所有人 都认为它是红色的。 但是我们每一个人所想的红色 都是独一无二的。 请想象一下。 我们从幼儿园就开始 接触基础的颜色—— 红,黄,蓝...... 它们其实并不基础, 它们可以被简化。 事实上这些颜色是 相对主观而不是相对客观的。 什么?
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Albers called this "relational." Relational. And so it was the first time that I was able to see my own neighborhood as a relational context. Each color is affected by its neighbor. Each other is affected by its neighbor.
阿尔伯斯管这叫“相关的”。 相关的。 所以这是我第一次, 把我的社区视为一种关系环境。 社区影响着每一种颜色, 影响着每一个人。
In the 1930s, the United States government created the Federal Housing Administration, which in turn created a series of maps which were using a color-coding system to determine which neighborhoods should and should not receive federal housing loans. Their residential security map was its own kind of color palette, and in fact was more influential than all of those color palettes that I had been studying in college combined. Banks would not lend to people who lived in neighborhoods like mine. That's me in D86. Their cartographers were literally coloring in these maps and labeling that color "hazardous." Red was the new black, and black neighborhoods were colored.
上个世纪三十年代, 美国政府建立了 联邦住宅管理局, 他们画了一系列的地图, 并使用色彩编码系统来决定 哪些人可以收到联邦住房贷款。 他们在住房安全地图上 所使用的配色十分独特, 与我在大学研究的所有配色相比, 这种配色实际上更具有影响力。 银行不会给我们社区的人贷款。 我就住在D86区。 我们在地图上的颜色 被标记为”危险“。 红色成为黑人的新代表色, 黑人社区都被标记为了红色。
The problem persists today, and we've seen it most recently in the foreclosure crisis. In Chicago, this is best symbolized by these Xs that are emblazoned on the fronts of vacated houses on the South and West Side. The reality is that someone else's color palettes were determining my physical and artistic existence. Ridiculous.
这个问题至今仍存在, 特别是在丧失抵押品赎回权中尤为常见。 在芝加哥, 在房子的南面或者西面, 这些空置的房屋上刻着“X”。 这些人的配色决定了 我存在的意义。 无稽之谈。
I decided that I'd create my own color palette and speak to the people who live where I do and alter the way that color had been defined for us. It was a palette that I didn't have to search far for and look for in a treatise, because I already knew it. What kind of painter emerges from this reality? What color is urban? What color is ghetto? What color is privilege? What color is gang-related? What color is gentrification? What color is Freddie Gray? What color is Mike Brown? Finally, I'd found a way to connect my racialized understanding of color with my theoretical understanding of color. And I gave birth to my third baby: "Color(ed) Theory."
我决定要创造自己独特的颜色, 并与周围的人交流, 去改变用颜色定义我们的方式。 这是一个我不用过多检索的调色板, 不需要过多的查找文献, 因为我已经知道了。 什么样的画家会从现实中诞生? 都市是什么颜色的? 贫民窟是什么颜色的? 特权是什么颜色的? 帮派是什么颜色的? 贵族是什么颜色的? 弗雷迪·格雷是什么颜色的? (美籍非裔,因警察暴力去世) 迈克·布朗是什么颜色的? (美籍非裔,被警方枪杀) 最终,我找到了一种方法, 把我对颜色的种族化理解 和我对颜色的理论认知联系起来。 所以我创造了第三个理论: “有色理论”。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
"Color(ed) Theory" was a two-year artistic project in which I applied my own color palette to my own neighborhoods in my own way. Now, if I walked down 79th Street right now and I asked 50 people for the name of the slightly greener shade of cyan, they would look at me sideways.
“有色理论”是一个 长达两年的艺术项目。 在这个项目中,我用自己的 调色板,用我独特的方式 来装饰社区。 现在,如果行走在79街上, 询问50名路人 “比青色更绿一点的颜色叫什么”, 他们会很诧异地看着我。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But if I say, "What color is Ultra Sheen?" -- oh, a smile emerges, stories about their grandmother's bathroom ensue. I mean, who needs turquoise when you have Ultra Sheen? Who needs teal when you have Ultra Sheen? Who needs ultramarine when you have ...
但如果我说: “超亮(护发素品牌)是什么颜色的?” 他们的脸上便会浮出笑容, 关于他们祖母浴室的故事也接踵而至。 当你手头有这种护发素时, 谁会需要青绿色? 谁会需要蓝绿色? 谁会需要群青,如果你有......
(Audience) Ultra Sheen.
(观众)超亮。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
This is exactly how I derived my palette. I would ask friends and family and people with backgrounds that were similar to mine for those stories and memories. The stories weren't always happy but the colors always resonated more than the product itself. I took those theories to the street. "Ultra Sheen." "Pink Oil Moisturizer." If you're from Chicago, "Harold's Chicken Shack."
这正是我独特的调色板。 我会问我的朋友和家人, 以及那些和我背景相似的人, 问起他们的故事和回忆。 这些故事并不总是愉快的, 但产品的颜色总比 产品本身更容易引起共鸣。 我对街道的配色使用了这套理论。 ”超亮“, "粉油保湿霜"。 如果你来自芝加哥, 你应该知道“哈罗的鸡肉小吃”。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
"Currency Exchange + Safe Passage." "Flamin' Red Hots." "Loose Squares" ... and "Crown Royal Bag."
"货币兑换和安全通行证 ", "火红的火种", "松散方格", 以及"烈酒装饰袋" 。 (以上为讲者对这些建筑的命名)
I painted soon-to-be-demolished homes in a much-maligned area called Englewood. We'd gather up as much paint as I could fit in my trunk, I'd call my most trusted art homies, my amazing husband always by my side, and we'd paint every inch of the exteriors in monochromatic fashion. I wanted to understand scale in a way that I hadn't before. I wanted to apply the colors to the biggest canvas I could imagine ... houses. So I'd obsessively drive up and down familiar streets that I'd grown up on, I'd cross-reference these houses with the city's data portal to make sure that they'd been tagged for demolition -- unsalvageable, left for dead. I really wanted to understand what it meant to just let color rule, to trust my instincts, to stop asking for permission. No meetings with city officials, no community buy-in, just let color rule in my desire to paint different pictures about the South Side.
我给许多将要 被拆除的房子上了色, 那些房子在一个 充满非议的地区——恩格尔伍德。 我们会尽可能在我的卡车上装满油漆, 我会叫上我最信任的艺术伙伴, 我的丈夫总会在身边支持我, 然后我们会把建筑外的每一寸 都涂上同一种颜色。 我想用一种新的方法去理解比例。 我想在最大的画布上上色...... 在房子上上色。 我在熟悉的街道上来回踱量, 在城市信息查询处检查 哪些建筑物将被摧毁—— 或已无法修复,或者是死者的故居。 我十分想理解被颜色主宰的感觉, 相信直觉, 停止请求许可。 不询问城市管理员的意见, 不需要社区认同, 让颜色主宰一切。 我想在城南绘制不同的图案。
These houses sit in stark contrast to their fully lined counterparts. We'd paint to make them stand out like Monopoly pieces in these environments. And we'd go on these early Sunday mornings and keep going until we ran out of that paint or until someone complained.
这些房子和它们周围的房屋 形成了鲜明的对比。 在这样的环境中,我们把它们画得像 大富翁的房子一样显眼。 我们常常在周日上午去, 一直到油漆用完或有人投诉。
"Hey, did you paint that?" a driver asked as I was taking this image one day.
”嘿,你在给那个房屋上色吗?? 某一天我在拍这张图片的时候, 一个司机问我。
Me, nervously: "Yes?"
我紧张地回答道: “是的。”
His face changed. "Aw, I thought Prince was coming."
他的脸色瞬间变了。 “噢,我以为王子(Prince R. Nelson, 美国著名音乐家)要来了。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
He had grown up on this block, and so you could imagine when he drove past and saw one of its last remaining houses mysteriously change colors overnight, it was clearly not a Crown Royal bag involved, it was a secret beacon from Prince.
他从小在这附近长大, 你可以想象当他开车经过的时候, 看到为数不多的老房子 在一夜之间神奇地改变了颜色, 这显然不是因为眼花了, 这可能是来自王子的秘密信号。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And though that block was almost all but erased, it was the idea that Prince could pop up in unexpected places and give free concerts in areas that the music industry and society had deemed were not valuable anymore. For him, the idea that just the image of this house was enough to bring Prince there meant that it was possible. In that moment, that little patch of Eggleston had become synonymous with royalty. And for however briefly, Eric Bennett's neighborhood had regained its value. So we traded stories despite being strangers about which high school we'd gone to and where we'd grown up, and Mrs. So-and-so's candy store -- of being kids on the South Side. And once I revealed that in fact this project had absolutely nothing to do with Prince, Eric nodded in seeming agreement, and as we parted ways and he drove off, he said, "But he could still come!"
尽管那个街区几乎要被拆掉了, 但王子仍可能会突然出现在 意想不到的地方, 在音乐产业和社会都认为 不再有价值的区域, 举办免费音乐会, 对他而言, 仅仅是这座房子的图片 就足以吸引王子前来。 这意味着万事皆有可能。 在那一瞬间, 埃格尔斯顿的一小部分 已经成为皇室的代名词。 简单来讲, 埃里克·班纳特的社区 已经恢复了价值。 所以虽然我们是陌生人, 但是我们互相交换了故事, 我们谈论了曾经念过的高中, 从小生长的地方, 还有一家 在芝加哥南边的糖果店。 一旦我表示 这个项目和王子 一点关系都没有时, 埃里克似乎是同意的, 但当我们分开的时候, 他仍坚持,“王子还是有可能会来”。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
He had assumed full ownership of this project and was not willing to relinquish it, even to me, its author. That, for me, was success.
他声明了这个项目的所有权, 并且不愿意放弃这个观点, 甚至对我这个创作者 也持有这个态度。 那对我而言就是成功的。
I wish I could tell you that this project transformed the neighborhood and all the indices that we like to rely on: increased jobs, reduced crime, no alcoholism -- but in fact it's more gray than that. "Color(ed) Theory" catalyzed new conversations about the value of blackness. "Color(ed) Theory" made unmistakably visible the uncomfortable questions that institutions and governments have to ask themselves about why they do what they do. They ask equally difficult questions of myself and my neighborhood counterparts about our value systems and what our path to collective agency needs to be. Color gave me freedom in a way that didn't wait for permission or affirmation or inclusion. Color was something that I could rule now. One of the neighborhood members and paint crew members said it best when he said, "This didn't change the neighborhood, it changed people's perceptions about what's possible for their neighborhood," in big and small ways.
我希望我可以告诉你们 这个项目改变了社区, 用那些我们依赖的指数: 新增工作岗位,犯罪率降低, 没有人酗酒—— 但事实上,它更灰暗。 “有色理论”促进了 关于黑人的价值新的讨论。 “有色理论”明确地指出 令人不适的问题, 那些组织和政府必须问问自己的问题, 他们为什么要这样做。 他们问我们难以回答的问题, 关于我们的价值体系, 以及我们通往 集体组织的方式。 色彩给了我喘息的空间, 不需要得到许可, 也不需要肯定和包容。 色彩是我可以自己主宰的东西。 我的邻居兼上色伙伴 曾经说过一句很在理的话, “这些行为没有改变我们的社区, 它”——或多或少——“改变了 人们对我们的看法。“
Passersby would ask me, "Why are you painting that house when you know the city's just going to come and tear it down?" At the time, I had no idea, I just knew that I had to do something. I would give anything to better understand color as both a medium and as an inescapable way that I am identified in society. If I have any hope of making the world better, I have to love and leverage both of these ways that I'm understood, and therein lies the value and the hue.
路人可能会问我: “为什么你要给这些房子上色呢? 政府马上就要拆了它们。” 那时候,我往往没有答案, 我只知道我应该做些什么。 我愿意付出一切 为了更好地理解 作为一种媒介 和我定义社会的方式的颜色。 如果我对美好的世界抱有希望, 我必须热爱和利用 这两种我理解的方式, 那就是价值和色彩。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause and cheers)
(掌声)