(Applause)
(Aplauz)
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
I am a papercutter. (Laughter) I cut stories. So my process is very straightforward. I take a piece of paper, I visualize my story, sometimes I sketch, sometimes I don't. And as my image is already inside the paper, I just have to remove what's not from that story. So I didn't come to papercutting in a straight line. In fact, I see it more as a spiral.
Ja sam rezačica papira. (Smeh) Ja izrezujem priče. Koristim veoma jednostavan postupak. Uzmem parče papira, zamislim svoju priču kao sliku, ponekad skiciram, ponekad ne. I kada je moja slika već u papiru, ja samo treba da odstranim ono što nije iz te priče. Moj put do rezanja papira nije bio prav. Zapravo, zamišljam ga više kao spiralu.
I was not born with a blade in my hand. And I don't remember papercutting as a child. As a teenager, I was sketching, drawing, and I wanted to be an artist. But I was also a rebel. And I left everything and went for a long series of odd jobs. So among them, I have been a shepherdess, a truck driver, a factory worker, a cleaning lady. I worked in tourism for one year in Mexico, one year in Egypt. I moved for two years in Taiwan. And then I settled in New York where I became a tour guide. And I still worked as a tour leader, traveled back and forth in China, Tibet and Central Asia.
Nisam se rodila sa makazama u rukama. I ne sećam se da sam seckala papir kao dete. Kao tinejdžerka crtala sam, skicirala i htela da budem umetnica. Ali bila sam i buntovnica. I ostavila sam sve i započela niz čudnih poslova. Između ostalog, bila sam čobanica, vozačica kamiona, radnica u fabrici, čistačica. Radila sam u turizmu godinu dana u Meksiku, godinu dana u Egiptu. Preselila sam se na dve godine na Tajvan. Onda sam se skrasila u Njujorku i tu postala turistički vodič. I dalje sam radila kao vođa puta i putovala puno po Kini, Tibetu i Centralnoj Aziji.
So of course, it took time, and I was nearly 40, and I decided it's time to start as an artist. (Applause) I chose papercutting because paper is cheap, it's light, and you can use it in a lot of different ways. And I chose the language of silhouette because graphically it's very efficient. And it's also just getting to the essential of things. So the word "silhouette" comes from a minister of finance, Etienne de Silhouette. And he slashed so many budgets that people said they couldn't afford paintings anymore, and they needed to have their portrait "a la silhouette." (Laughter) So I made series of images, cuttings, and I assembled them in portfolios. And people told me -- like these 36 views of the Empire State building -- they told me, "You're making artist books."
I naravno, vreme je prolazilo, imala sam skoro 40 godina, i odlučila sam da je vreme da postanem umetnica. (Aplauz) Izabrala sam rezanje papira zato što je papir jeftin, lagan, i može da se koristi na mnogo načina. I odabrala sam jezik silueta zato što je grafički veoma efektan. I zato što pogađa samu srž stvari. Reč silueta dolazi od jednog ministra finansija, Etjena de Silueta. On je toliko srezao budžet, da su ljudi rekli da nemaju više para za slike, nego moraju da naručuju sebi portrete "a la siluet". (Smeh) Tako sam napravila seriju slika, izrezaka, i grupisala ih u mape. I ljudi su mi rekli -- kao ovih 36 pogleda na Empajer stejt bilding -- rekli su mi: "Ti praviš umetničke knjige."
So artist books have a lot of definitions. They come in a lot of different shapes. But to me, they are fascinating objects to visually narrate a story. They can be with words or without words. And I have a passion for images and for words. I love pun and the relation to the unconscious. I love oddities of languages. And everywhere I lived, I learned the languages, but never mastered them. So I'm always looking for the false cognates or identical words in different languages.
Ima puno definicija umetničkih knjiga. One mogu biti različitih oblika. Ali, za mene, one su fascinantan način da se vizuelno ispriča priča. To mogu biti knjige sa rečima ili bez reči. A ja strastveno volim i slike i reči. Volim igre reči i njihovu povezanost sa podsvešću. Volim neobične pojave u jezicima. I gde god sam živela, učila sam jezike, ali nikad nisam ovladavala njima. Tako uvek tražim lažne prijatelje ili iste reči u različitim jezicima.
So as you can guess, my mother tongue is French. And my daily language is English. So I did a series of work where it was identical words in French and in English. So one of these works is the "Spelling Spider." So the Spelling Spider is a cousin of the spelling bee. (Laughter) But it's much more connected to the Web. (Laughter) And this spider spins a bilingual alphabet. So you can read "architecture active" or "active architecture." So this spider goes through the whole alphabet with identical adjectives and substantives. So if you don't know one of these languages, it's instant learning.
Kao što možete da pretpostavite, moj maternji jezik je francuski. A moj svakodnevni jezik je engleski. Uradila sam seriju radova sa identičnim rečima u francuskom i engleskom. Jedan od tih radova je "Pismeni pauk". A Pismeni pauk je pametan "kao pčelica". (Smeh) I mnogo je više "umrežen". (Smeh) Ovaj pauk plete dvojezični alfabet. Dakle, natpis "Aktivna arhitektura" možete pročitati na francuskom i na engleskom. Tako ovaj pauk prolazi kroz čitav alfabet uz pomoć identičnih prideva i imenica. Ako ne znate jedan od ovih jezika, vi odmah nešto naučite.
And one ancient form of the book is scrolls. So scrolls are very convenient, because you can create a large image on a very small table. So the unexpected consequences of that is that you only see one part of your image, so it makes a very freestyle architecture. And I'm making all those kinds of windows. So it's to look beyond the surface. It's to have a look at different worlds. And very often I've been an outsider. So I want to see how things work and what's happening. So each window is an image and is a world that I often revisit. And I revisit this world thinking about the image or cliché about what we want to do, and what are the words, colloquialisms, that we have with the expressions.
Jedan od starih oblika knjige je svitak. Svitak je veoma zgodan jer možete napraviti veliku sliku na veoma malom stolu. Neočekivana posledica toga je da vidite samo jedan deo slike, pa se dobija arhitektura veoma slobodnog stila. Ja pravim puno različitih prozora. A to je da bismo pogledali ispod površine. Da bismo zavirili u drugačije svetove. Ja sam često bila stranac. I hoću da znam kako stvari funkcionišu i šta se dešava. Svaki prozor je slika i svet kome se često vraćam. Vraćam se tom svetu i razmišljam o slici ili klišeu o onome što želimo da uradimo, i o tome šta znače žargonske reči koje koristimo u izrazima.
It's all if. So what if we were living in balloon houses? It would make a very uplifting world. And we would leave a very low footprint on the planet. It would be so light. So sometimes I view from the inside, like EgoCentriCity and the inner circles. Sometimes it's a global view, to see our common roots and how we can use them to catch dreams. And we can use them also as a safety net.
I sve je pretpostavka. A šta bi bilo da živimo u balonima? To bi bio jedan veoma poletan svet. Ostavili bismo veoma mali karbonski otisak na planeti. Sve bi bilo veoma lagano. Ponekad posmatram stvari iznutra, kao EgocentroGrad sa unutrašnjim krugovima. Ponekad posmatram globalno, da bih videla naše zajedničke korene i kako ih možemo koristiti za hvatanje snova. A možemo ih koristi još i kao sigurnosnu mrežu.
And my inspirations are very eclectic. I'm influenced by everything I read, everything I see. I have some stories that are humorous, like "Dead Beats." (Laughter) Other ones are historical. Here it's "CandyCity." It's a non-sugar-coated history of sugar. It goes from slave trade to over-consumption of sugar with some sweet moments in between. And sometimes I have an emotional response to news, such as the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Other times, it's not even my stories. People tell me their lives, their memories, their aspirations, and I create a mindscape. I channel their history [so that] they have a place to go back to look at their life and its possibilities. I call them Freudian cities.
Moje inspiracije su mnogobrojne. Na mene utiče sve što čitam, sve što vidim. Imam neke šaljive priče, kao "Strava Ritam". (Smeh) Neke su istorijske. Ovo je "SlatkišGrad". To je istorija šećera bez glazure. Proteže se od trgovine robljem do prekomernog korišćenja šećera sa malo slatkih momenata između. A ponekad imam emotivnu reakciju na vesti, kao na zemljotres na Haitiju 2010. godine. Ponekad to uopšte nisu moje priče. Ljudi mi ispričaju svoje živote, svoja sećanja, svoje želje, i ja napravim pejzaž njihovih misli. Ja kanališem njihovu istoriju tako da mogu da pogledaju u prošlost i razmisle o svom životu i mogućnostima koje on pruža. Zovem ih frojdovski gradovi.
I cannot speak for all my images, so I'll just go through a few of my worlds just with the title. "ModiCity." "ElectriCity." "MAD Growth on Columbus Circle." "ReefCity." "A Web of Time." "Chaos City." "Daily Battles." "FeliCity." "Floating Islands." And at one point, I had to do "The Whole Nine Yards." So it's actually a papercut that's nine yards long. (Laughter) So in life and in papercutting, everything is connected. One story leads to another. I was also interested in the physicality of this format, because you have to walk to see it.
Ne mogu da govorim o svim svojim slikama, pa ću da preletim kroz nekoliko svojih svetova samo uz naslove. "Mali grad". "ElektroGrad". "Čudo od muzeja niče na trgu Kolumbo". "Grad greben". "Vremenska mreža", "Grad haosa". "Dnevne bitke". "Grad radosti". "Lebdeća ostrva". A jednom sam morala da izradim "Svih 9 jardi" (od početka do kraja), To je papir dugačak 9 jardi (8,2 metra). (Smeh) U životu i u rezanju papira, sve je povezano. Jedna priča vodi drugoj. Mene je zanimala i fizička strana ovog formata, jer morate da hodate da biste ga videli.
And parallel to my cutting is my running. I started with small images, I started with a few miles. Larger images, I started to run marathons. Then I went to run 50K, then 60K. Then I ran 50 miles -- ultramarathons. And I still feel I'm running, it's just the training to become a long-distance papercutter.
A uporedo sa izrezivanjem bavim se i trčanjem. Počela sam sa malim slikama, i sa nekoliko kilometara. Sa većim slikama, počela sam da trčim maratone. Onda sam počela da trčim 50 km, pa 60 km. Onda sam trčala 80 km - ultramaratone. I i dalje mi se čini da trčim, to je trening, da postanem dugometražni rezač papira.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And running gives me a lot of energy. Here is a three-week papercutting marathon at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. The result is "Hells and Heavens." It's two panels 13 ft. high. They were installed in the museum on two floors, but in fact, it's a continuous image. And I call it "Hells and Heavens" because it's daily hells and daily heavens. There is no border in between. Some people are born in hells, and against all odds, they make it to heavens. Other people make the opposite trip. That's the border. You have sweatshops in hells. You have people renting their wings in the heavens. And then you have all those individual stories where sometimes we even have the same action, and the result puts you in hells or in heavens. So the whole "Hells and Heavens" is about free will and determinism.
Zahvaljujući trčanju imam puno energije. Ovo je tronedeljni maraton u rezanju papira u Muzeju umetnosti i dizajna u Njujorku. Rezultat toga su "Paklovi i rajevi". To su dva panela visoka skoro 4 metra. Postavljeni su na dva sprata u muzeju, ali je to, zapravo, jedna celina. Zovem ih "Paklovi i rajevi", jer to su svakodnevni paklovi i svakodnevni rajevi. Između njih ne postoji granica. Neki ljudi su rođeni u paklu, ali uprkos svim izgledima, uspeju da dođu do raja. Neki, pak, imaju obrnut životni put. Ovo je granica. U paklu imamo izrabljivačke fabrike. U raju ljudi iznajmljuju svoja krila. A onda vidimo sve te individualne priče gde ponekad isti postupci odvode neke ljude u pakao, a neke u raj. Tako "Paklovi i rajevi" govore o slobodnoj volji i determinizmu.
And in papercutting, you have the drawing as the structure itself. So you can take it off the wall. Here it's an artist book installation called "Identity Project." It's not autobiographical identities. They are more our social identities. And then you can just walk behind them and try them on. So it's like the different layers of what we are made of and what we present to the world as an identity.
U rezanju papira crtež postaje i sama struktura. I on se može skinuti sa zida. Ovo je umetnička knjiga kao instalacija, koja se zove "Projekat: Identitet". Ovde se ne radi o autobiografskim identitetima. To su pre naši društveni identiteti. I možete jednostavno proći iza njih i probati ih. To su različiti slojevi od kojih smo sačinjeni i koje predstavljamo svetu kao svoj identitet.
That's another artist book project. In fact, in the picture, you have two of them. It's one I'm wearing and one that's on exhibition at the Center for Books Arts in New York City. Why do I call it a book? It's called "Fashion Statement," and there are quotes about fashion, so you can read it, and also, because the definition of artist book is very generous. So artist books, you take them off the wall. You take them for a walk. You can also install them as public art. Here it's in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it's called "Floating Memories." So it's regional memories, and they are just randomly moved by the wind.
Ovo je drugi projekat umetničkih knjiga. Zapravo, na slici vidite dva projekta. Onaj koji nosim i onaj koji je izložen u Centru za umetnost knjige u Njujorku. Zašto ih nazivam knjigama? Zovu se "Modne poruke", na njima su citati o modi, možete ih čitati, a isto tako, zato što je definicija umetničke knjige veoma velikodušna. Dakle, umetničke knjige se mogu skinuti sa zida. Mogu se izvesti u šetnju. A, mogu se izložiti i kao javna umetnost. Ovo je u Skotsdejlu, u Arizoni, a zove se "Lebdeća sećanja". U pitanju su regionalna sećanja, koja nasumično pomera vetar.
I love public art. And I entered competitions for a long time. After eight years of rejection, I was thrilled to get my first commission with the Percent for Art in New York City. It was for a merger station for emergency workers and firemen. I made an artist book that's in stainless steel instead of paper. I called it "Working in the Same Direction." But I added weathervanes on both sides to show that they cover all directions. With public art, I could also make cut glass. Here it's faceted glass in the Bronx. And each time I make public art, I want something that's really relevant to the place it's installed. So for the subway in New York, I saw a correspondence between riding the subway and reading. It is travel in time, travel on time. And Bronx literature, it's all about Bronx writers and their stories.
Ja volim javnu umetnost. Prijavljivala sam se na konkurse dosta dugo. Nakon osam godina negativnih odgovora, bila sam presrećna kada sam dobila poziv za program Procenat za umenost u Njujorku. Bilo je to za zajedničku stanicu hitne pomoći i vatrogasaca. Napravila sam umetničku knjigu od nerđajućeg čelika umesto od papira. Nazvala sam je "Raditi u istom smeru". Ali sam dodala i vertokaze sa obe strane da pokažem da pokriva sve smerove. Kroz javnu umetnost mogla sam još rezati i staklo. Ovo je rezano staklo u Bronksu. Svaki put kada stvaram javnu umetnost, želim nešto što je zaista važno za tu lokaciju. Za metro u Njujorku, pronašla sam povezanost između vožnje metroom i čitanja. To je putovanje kroz vreme, putovanje na vreme. A u književnosti Bronksa najvažniji su pisci iz Bronksa i njihove priče.
Another glass project is in a public library in San Jose, California. So I made a vegetable point of view of the growth of San Jose. So I started in the center with the acorn for the Ohlone Indian civilization. Then I have the fruit from Europe for the ranchers. And then the fruit of the world for Silicon Valley today. And it's still growing. So the technique, it's cut, sandblasted, etched and printed glass into architectural glass. And outside the library, I wanted to make a place to cultivate your mind. I took library material that had fruit in their title and I used them to make an orchard walk with these fruits of knowledge. I also planted the bibliotree. So it's a tree, and in its trunk you have the roots of languages. And it's all about international writing systems. And on the branches you have library material growing. You can also have function and form with public art. So in Aurora, Colorado it's a bench. But you have a bonus with this bench. Because if you sit a long time in summer in shorts, you will walk away with temporary branding of the story element on your thighs.
Još jedno delo od stakla je u javnoj biblioteci u San Hoseu, u Kaliforniji. Predstavila sam rast San Hosea kroz biljke. Počela sam iz centra žirom posvećenom indijanskoj civilzaciji Ohlone. Zatim imam voće iz Evrope za rančere. I onda voće sveta za današnju Silicijumsku dolinu. A rast ne prestaje. Tehnika je rezanje, peskarenje, graviranje, i utiskivanje stakla u arhitektonsko staklo. A ispred biblioteke htela sam da napravim mesto gde biste uzgajali svoj um. Uzela sam iz biblioteke materijal sa voćem u naslovu i napravila od toga voćnjak čiji su plodovi znanje. Osim toga, posadila sam i bibliodrvo. To je drvo, koje u stablu ima korene jezika. Radi se o internacionalnim načinima pisanja. A na granama rastu knjige. Kada stvarate javnu umetnost dobijete i primenu i formu. U Aurori, u Koloradu, napravila sam klupu. Ali, uz ovu klupu, dobija se i bonus. Tako što, ako dugo sedite leti u šorcu, otići ćete sa privremenim otiskom jednog dela priče na butinama.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Another functional work, it's in the south side of Chicago for a subway station. And it's called "Seeds of the Future are Planted Today." It's a story about transformation and connections. So it acts as a screen to protect the rail and the commuter, and not to have objects falling on the rails. To be able to change fences and window guards into flowers, it's fantastic. And here I've been working for the last three years with a South Bronx developer to bring art to life to low-income buildings and affordable housing. So each building has its own personality. And sometimes it's about a legacy of the neighborhood, like in Morrisania, about the jazz history. And for other projects, like in Paris, it's about the name of the street. It's called Rue des Prairies -- Prairie Street. So I brought back the rabbit, the dragonfly, to stay in that street.
Još jedno delo sa primenom je na južnoj strani Čikaga, za metro stanicu. Zove se "Seme budućnosti seje se danas". To je priča o transformaciji i povezanosti. Služi kao paravan koji štiti i šine i putnike, tako da ništa ne može pasti na šine. Moći pretvoriti ograde i rešetke na prozorima u cveće, to je fantastično. Protekle tri godine radim sa graditeljem iz južnog Bronksa na oživljavanju socijalno neprofitnih i povoljnih stanova. Svaka zgrada ima svoju osobenost. Ponekad se radi o nasleđu tog kraja, kao što je u Morisanji istorija džeza. Za druge projekte, kao u Parizu, radi se o imenu ulice. Ova se zove Rue des Prairies - Prerijska ulica. Zato sam vratila zeca, vilinog konjica, da ostanu u ovoj ulici.
And in 2009, I was asked to make a poster to be placed in the subway cars in New York City for a year. So that was a very captive audience. And I wanted to give them an escape. I created "All Around Town." It is a papercutting, and then after, I added color on the computer. So I can call it techno-crafted.
A u 2009. godini, pitali su me da napravim poster koji će biti postavljen u vagonima njujorškog metroa tokom godinu dana. Ovde imamo jednu zatočenu publiku. I ja sam želela da joj omogućim beg. Napravila sam "Po čitavom gradu". To je izrezak papira, a kasnije sam mu dodala boju na kompjuteru. Tako da mogu reći da je i tehnički obrađen.
And along the way, I'm kind of making papercuttings and adding other techniques. But the result is always to have stories. So the stories, they have a lot of possibilities. They have a lot of scenarios. I don't know the stories. I take images from our global imagination, from cliché, from things we are thinking about, from history. And everybody's a narrator, because everybody has a story to tell. But more important is everybody has to make a story to make sense of the world. And in all these universes, it's like imagination is the vehicle to be transported with, but the destination is our minds and how we can reconnect with the essential and with the magic. And it's what story cutting is all about.
U međuvremenu, izrezujem papir dodajući druge tehnike. Ali cilj je uvek da se ispriča priča. Priče pružaju mnogo mogućnosti. Imaju mnogo scenarija. Ja ne znam priče. Ja uzimam scene iz globalne mašte, iz klišea, iz stvari o kojima razgovaramo, iz istorije. Svako je pripovedač, jer svako ima svoju priču. Ali najvažnije je da svako treba da stvori priču, da bi svet imao smisla. I u svim ovim svetovima, mašta je prevozno sredstvo, ali cilj su naši umovi i cilj je ponovo se povezati sa suštinom i sa magijom. I to je upravo smisao izrezivanja priča.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)