This story is about taking imagination seriously. Fourteen years ago, I first encountered this ordinary material, fishnet, used the same way for centuries. Today, I'm using it to create permanent, billowing, voluptuous forms the scale of hard-edged buildings in cities around the world. I was an unlikely person to be doing this. I never studied sculpture, engineering or architecture. In fact, after college I applied to seven art schools and was rejected by all seven.
這個故事 是關於如何重視想像力。 14年前, 我第一次接觸到這種平平無奇的東西,漁網, 幾百年來都是用來打漁。 今天,我卻用它來創作 持久的,起伏有致,充滿張力的 建筑物大小的雕塑, 放置在世界上的很多城市。 我本來是最不可能從事這行的。 我從來沒學過雕塑, 工程或建築 事實上,大學畢業後, 我申請了7個藝術院校 結果他們全把我拒之門外。
I went off on my own to become an artist, and I painted for 10 years, when I was offered a Fulbright to India. Promising to give exhibitions of paintings, I shipped my paints and arrived in Mahabalipuram. The deadline for the show arrived -- my paints didn't. I had to do something. This fishing village was famous for sculpture. So I tried bronze casting. But to make large forms was too heavy and expensive. I went for a walk on the beach, watching the fishermen bundle their nets into mounds on the sand. I'd seen it every day, but this time I saw it differently -- a new approach to sculpture, a way to make volumetric form without heavy solid materials.
我只好自己想辦法成為一名藝術工作者, 我畫了10年的畫, 當我拿到Fullbright獎學金去印度。 我承諾要舉辦一個畫展, 就把我所有的畫都打包郵寄了,自己也到了Mahabalipuram(印度南部城市) 展覽快要開幕了—— 我的畫卻沒來! 我必須做點什麽。 這個漁村以雕塑聞名。 於是我嘗試青銅鑄件。 但是要造大型的作品太重也太貴。 我跑去沙灘上散步, 看那些漁民 在沙灘上,將漁網收攏成一堆。 這是我每天都看到的場景, 但這次我卻有了新的發現—— 一種新的雕塑方法—— 可以創造大型作品 卻無需沉重的實心材料。
My first satisfying sculpture was made in collaboration with these fishermen. It's a self-portrait titled "Wide Hips." (Laughter) We hoisted them on poles to photograph. I discovered their soft surfaces revealed every ripple of wind in constantly changing patterns. I was mesmerized. I continued studying craft traditions and collaborating with artisans, next in Lithuania with lace makers. I liked the fine detail it gave my work, but I wanted to make them larger -- to shift from being an object you look at to something you could get lost in.
我的第一個滿意的雕塑作品 就是和這些漁民一起完成的。 這個雕塑是我自己 叫做“闊臀。” (觀眾笑聲) 我們把它們吊起來放到柱子上拍照。 我發現 它們柔軟的表面 能展現風的任何蛛絲馬跡 不斷地改變著形狀。 我簡直著了魔。 我繼續學習傳統手工藝 和工匠們一起工作, 後來在立陶宛,和蕾絲工匠們一起。 我喜歡它賦予我的作品 精細的細節。 但是我希望它們可以大些—— 從一個你能注視的物體 放大到足以讓你迷失在其中。
Returning to India to work with those fishermen, we made a net of a million and a half hand-tied knots -- installed briefly in Madrid. Thousands of people saw it, and one of them was the urbanist Manual Sola-Morales who was redesigning the waterfront in Porto, Portugal. He asked if I could build this as a permanent piece for the city. I didn't know if I could do that and preserve my art. Durable, engineered, permanent -- those are in opposition to idiosyncratic, delicate and ephemeral.
回到印度,和漁民一起, 我們造了一張網, 上面有一百五十萬個手打的繩結—— 在馬德里短期展出。 上千人看到了它, 其中一個人是城市規劃師 Manual Sola-Morales 他當時在重新設計 葡萄牙波爾圖的濱河地帶。 他問我是否能把這個 做成一個永久性的作品放在波爾圖。 我也不知道在讓其固定的同時 還能否保持我的藝術風格。 持久,設計,永恆—— 這些正好與 敏感,脆弱和短暫相對。
For two years, I searched for a fiber that could survive ultraviolet rays, salt, air, pollution, and at the same time remain soft enough to move fluidly in the wind. We needed something to hold the net up out there in the middle of the traffic circle. So we raised this 45,000-pound steel ring. We had to engineer it to move gracefully in an average breeze and survive in hurricane winds. But there was no engineering software to model something porous and moving. I found a brilliant aeronautical engineer who designs sails for America's Cup racing yachts named Peter Heppel. He helped me tackle the twin challenges of precise shape and gentle movement.
在兩年裡,我尋找一種纖維, 可以經受得住紫外線, 含鹽分的空氣,污染, 而同時還能保持足夠柔軟, 可以在風中起伏運動。 我們需要某種東西可以支撐起網子 讓它矗立在交通環島中央。 結果我們抬起了這個重達4萬5千磅的鋼環。 我們必須把它設計得 能隨著每陣輕風優雅地拂動, 同時又能在颶風中倖存下來。 但是沒有一種工程軟件 來模擬這種多孔又運動的物體。 我找到一位出色的航空工程師 他為美國杯帆船賽設計風帆, 他叫Peter Heppel。 他幫我解決了這兩個密切相關的挑戰 精確的形態 與輕柔的運動並存。
I couldn't build this the way I knew because hand-tied knots weren't going to withstand a hurricane. So I developed a relationship with an industrial fishnet factory, learned the variables of their machines, and figured out a way to make lace with them. There was no language to translate this ancient, idiosyncratic handcraft into something machine operators could produce. So we had to create one. Three years and two children later, we raised this 50,000-square-foot lace net. It was hard to believe that what I had imagined was now built, permanent and had lost nothing in translation.
我不能用我熟悉的方式創造它, 因為手打的繩結 無法耐受住一場颶風。 於是我聯繫了 一個生產工業用漁網的工廠, 學習了他們機床上的各種變量, 找到一個方法 可以用它們編制蕾絲。 沒有現成的方法 能轉化這一古老的,特殊的手工藝 好讓機床工人能製造出類似的東西。 所以我們必須自己創造出一個方法。 在花了三年時間,并生了兩個孩子以後, 我們掛起了這張5萬平方英尺的蕾絲網。 很難相信 我的想像 現在真的成形了,還是永久的, 而且在實現過程中沒有走樣。
(Applause)
(觀眾掌聲)
This intersection had been bland and anonymous. Now it had a sense of place. I walked underneath it for the first time. As I watched the wind's choreography unfold, I felt sheltered and, at the same time, connected to limitless sky. My life was not going to be the same. I want to create these oases of sculpture in spaces of cities around the world. I'm going to share two directions that are new in my work.
這個交通路口曾經一度平平無奇籍籍無名 現在它卻成為一個景點。 我第一次 從下面走過。 當我看到風的舞動一一展現時, 我覺得自己受到遮護, 而與此同時, 又與無盡的天空相通。 我的人生從此改變。 我想要繼續創作這些雕塑綠洲 散佈到全世界的城市。 我想給大家看我的創作中 兩個新方向。
Historic Philadelphia City Hall: its plaza, I felt, needed a material for sculpture that was lighter than netting. So we experimented with tiny atomized water particles to create a dry mist that is shaped by the wind and in testing, discovered that it can be shaped by people who can interact and move through it without getting wet. I'm using this sculpture material to trace the paths of subway trains above ground in real time -- like an X-ray of the city's circulatory system unfolding.
費城歷史紀念館: 我覺得它的廣場需要一種雕塑 要比漁網還輕。 於是我們試驗 用小小的噴霧狀水滴 創造出一片乾燥的薄霧, 會被風改變形狀。 在實驗中我們發現 它也會被人改變形狀, 人可以與之互動,可以從中穿過卻不會被弄濕。 我正在用這種雕塑材料 去追蹤地上城鐵的軌跡, 是實時的—— 就像逐漸延展開的城市循環系統的X光片。
Next challenge, the Biennial of the Americas in Denver asked, could I represent the 35 nations of the Western hemisphere and their interconnectedness in a sculpture? (Laughter) I didn't know where to begin, but I said yes. I read about the recent earthquake in Chile and the tsunami that rippled across the entire Pacific Ocean. It shifted the Earth's tectonic plates, sped up the planet's rotation and literally shortened the length of the day. So I contacted NOAA, and I asked if they'd share their data on the tsunami, and translated it into this. Its title: "1.26" refers to the number of microseconds that the Earth's day was shortened.
下一個挑戰, 是丹佛的美國雙年展 請我去把 西半球的35個國家以及他們之間的相互關聯 用一個雕塑展現出來。 (觀眾笑聲) 我都不知道從哪下手, 但是我卻說:行。 我查閱了最近智利的地震, 以及橫掃過 整個太平洋的海嘯。 它移動了地球的板塊構造, 加速了地球的自轉 而且真的縮短了白晝的長度。 於是我聯絡美國國家海洋氣象局 詢問他們是否可以和我分享他們關於海嘯的數據 然後創作出這個作品。 標題:1.26。 就是1.26微秒 地球白晝被縮短的時間。
I couldn't build this with a steel ring, the way I knew. Its shape was too complex now. So I replaced the metal armature with a soft, fine mesh of a fiber 15 times stronger than steel. The sculpture could now be entirely soft, which made it so light it could tie in to existing buildings -- literally becoming part of the fabric of the city. There was no software that could extrude these complex net forms and model them with gravity. So we had to create it.
我無法根據已知的方法用一個鋼環來創作這個作品 它的外形太過複雜了。 於是我把金屬骨架替換為 一種柔軟的細篩, 它的纖維比鋼絲的強度高15倍。 現在這個雕塑可以是徹底柔軟的, 而且如此之輕, 可以系在已有的建築物上—— 實實在在成為城市建築群落的一部份。 沒有任何軟件 能生成這些複雜的網狀物的模型 并模擬它們在重力作用下的樣子。 所以我們必須自己創造。
Then I got a call from New York City asking if I could adapt these concepts to Times Square or the High Line. This new soft structural method enables me to model these and build these sculptures at the scale of skyscrapers. They don't have funding yet, but I dream now of bringing these to cities around the world where they're most needed.
這時我收到從紐約來一個電話 問我是否能夠把這個創意適用到 時代廣場 或空中公園。 這種新的軟結構方法 讓我可以設計 并建造出的雕塑 有摩天大廈大小。 他們現在還沒籌夠資金, 但是我現在夢想著 可以把這些作品放到世界上的很多城市 那些最需要它們的地方。
Fourteen years ago, I searched for beauty in the traditional things, in craft forms. Now I combine them with hi-tech materials and engineering to create voluptuous, billowing forms the scale of buildings. My artistic horizons continue to grow.
十四年前, 我爲了追求美 走進傳統工藝, 手工藝術。 現在我把它們和高科技的材料和工程學結合起來 創造出起伏飄逸的 建築物大小的雕塑。 我的藝術視野還在擴展。
I'll leave you with this story. I got a call from a friend in Phoenix. An attorney in the office who'd never been interested in art, never visited the local art museum, dragged everyone she could from the building and got them outside to lie down underneath the sculpture. There they were in their business suits, laying in the grass, noticing the changing patterns of wind beside people they didn't know, sharing the rediscovery of wonder.
最後一個故事, 我接到鳳凰城一個朋友的電話。 是個坐辦公室的律師 平生從沒對藝術有過興趣, 也從來沒去過當地的藝術博物館, 卻把她樓里的人能拉的都拉出去 讓他們躺在那個雕塑下。 然後他們就那麼西服革履的, 躺在草地上, 看著不停變化著的風, 儘管身邊的人彼此不認識, 卻一同分享著對奇跡的重新發現。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(觀眾掌聲)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
謝謝大家。謝謝大家。 謝謝大家。 謝謝大家。謝謝大家。
(Applause)
(觀眾掌聲)