I love museums. Have you guys ever been to the Natural History Museum? In New York City?
我很愛博物館。 你們曾經去過國家歷史博物館嗎? 在紐約市的?
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So one of the things that I do is I take my kids to the museum. Recently I took them to the Natural History Museum. I had my two sons with me, Sabian and Dabith. And we go into the front entrance of the museum, and there's that amazing sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt out there. You guys know which one I'm talking about. Teddy Roosevelt is sitting there with one hand on the horse, bold, strong, sleeves rolled up. I don't know if he's bare-chested, but it kind of feels like it.
我會帶我的孩子去博物館。 最近,我帶他們到國家歷史博物館。 我帶著兩個兒子, 賽賓恩跟戴比斯, 我們到了博物館前面的入口, 外面有一座很棒的羅斯福雕像。 你們知道我在說的是哪一座吧。 羅斯福坐在那裡,一隻手在馬上, 英勇、堅強、捲著袖子。 我不知道他有沒有袒胸, 但感覺好像有。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And on the left-hand side of him is a Native American walking. And on the right-hand side of him is an African-American walking. And as we're moving up the stairs, getting closer to the sculpture, my oldest son, who's nine, says, "Dad, how come he gets to ride, and they have to walk?"
在他的左手邊, 有個美國原住民在走路。 在他的右手邊, 有個非裔美國人在走路。 當我們正在上樓梯時, 越來越靠近雕像, 我九歲的大兒子說: 「爹,為什麼他可以騎馬, 他們卻得走路?」
It stopped me in my tracks. It stopped me in my tracks. There was so much history that we would have to go through to try to explain that, and that's something I try to do with them anyways. It's a question that I probably would have never really asked. But fundamentally what he was saying was, "That doesn't look fair. Dad, that doesn't look fair. And why is this thing that's so not fair sitting outside of such an amazing institution." And his question got me wondering, is there a way for us to amend our public sculptures, our national monuments? Not erase them, but is there a way to amend them?
這讓我我突然停下來。 這讓我我突然停下來。 要講好多的歷史, 才有辦法去試著解釋這件事, 但我還是這麼做了。 這個問題可能是 我永遠不會問的問題。 但基本上,他在說的是: 「那看起來不公平, 爹,那看起來不公平。 為什麼這個不太公平的東西 會放在這麼棒的機構外面?」 他的問題讓我思忖, 有沒有什麼方式讓我們能修改 公開展示的雕像和國家紀念碑? 不是要抹除它們, 而是有沒有方式修改它們?
Now, I didn't grow up going to museums. That's not my history. My mother was 15 years old when I was born. She is amazing. My father was struggling with his own things for most of my life. If you really want to know the truth, the only reason I got into art is because of a woman. There was this amazing, amazing, fantastic, beautiful, smart woman, four years older than me, and I wanted to go out with her. But she said, "You're too young and you're not thinking about your future." So I ran on down to the junior college, registered for some classes, ran on back, and basically was like, "I'm thinking about my future now."
我成長過程沒去過博物館, 那不是我的歷史。 我出生時,我媽才十五歲。 她棒極了。 我人生中大部份的時候, 我爸都在掙扎著他自己的事。 如果你們真的想知道真相, 我進入藝術這行的 唯一理由,是一個女人。 有個非常棒、出色、 美麗、聰明的女人, 她比我大四歲, 我想約她出去。 但她說:「你太年輕, 且你沒有好好思考你的未來。」 所以,我跑去專科學校, 註冊參加了一些課程, 再跑回來, 那基本上就像是:「我現在 有在思考我的未來了。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"Can we go out?"
「我們能約出去了嗎?」
For the record, she's even more amazing. I married her.
鄭重聲明,她結果還更棒, 我娶了她。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So when I randomly ran down to the junior college and registered for classes, I really wasn't paying attention to what I was registering to.
當我隨機跑到專科學校 並註冊了一些課程時, 我其實沒有注意我註冊了什麼。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So I ended up with an art history class, and I didn't know a thing about art history. But something amazing happened when I went into that class. For the first time in my academic career, my visual intelligence was required of me. For the first time. The professor would put up an image, bold strokes of blues and yellows, and say, "Who's that?" And I'd go, "That's Van Gogh. Clearly that is Van Gogh. I got this."
我最後是去上了藝術史課程, 我對藝術史什麼都不知道。 但當我上課時發生了很棒的事。 在我的學術生涯中,那是第一次 我需要用到我的視覺智能。 那是第一次。 教授會展示出一張圖, 圖上有著大膽的藍色與黃色筆觸, 他會說:「那是誰?」 我會說:「那是梵谷, 很明顯那是梵谷。 這個我知道。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I got a B in that class. For me, that was amazing. In high school, let's just say I wasn't a great student. OK? In high school, my GPA was .65.
那堂課我的成績得到 B。 對我來說,那很不可思議。 在高中,姑且說 我不是個很棒的學生,好嗎? 在高中,我的 GPA 成績是 .65。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Decimal point first, six five. So me getting a B was huge, huge, absolutely huge. And because of the fact that I realized that I was able to learn things visually that I couldn't learn in other ways, this became my strategy, this became my tactic for understanding everything else. I wanted to stay in this relationship. Things were going well.
前面有個小數點,後面才是 65。 所以我拿到 B 是件很大很大的事, 絕對是很大的事。 且因為我了解到我可以 用視覺的方式來學習那些 我無法用其他方式學的事物, 這就變成了我的策略, 這就變成了我的戰術, 用來了解所有其他的一切。 我想要留在這段關係中, 一切都很順利。
I decided, let me keep taking these art history classes. One of the last art history classes, I will not forget, I will never forget. It was one of those survey art history classes. Anybody ever have one of those survey art history classes, where they try to teach you the entire history of art in a single semester? I'm talking about cave paintings and Jackson Pollock just crunched together all in the same -- It doesn't really work, but they try anyway. Well, at the beginning of the semester, I looked at the book, and in this 400-page book was about a 14-page section that was on black people in painting. Now, this was a crammed in section that had representations of black people in painting and black people who painted. It was poorly curated, let's just put it that way.
我決定要繼續修這些藝術史的課程。 我永遠忘不了我最後上的 藝術史課的其中一堂, 那堂課是堂藝術史概論課程。 有人曾經上過藝術史概論課程嗎? 在這種概論課程中, 他們會試著把整個藝術史 用一個學期教給你。 我在說的是,洞穴繪畫和 傑克遜波洛克 通通都擠縮在一起…… 這樣其實沒有用, 但他們還是試著這樣做。 在學期初, 我看著書, 在這本四百頁的書中, 有個章節大約十四頁, 內容是關於繪畫中的黑人。 這是個什麼都硬塞進去的章節, 有繪畫中對黑人的表述、 也有會畫畫的黑人。 編排策劃得很差, 姑且就那樣形容它吧。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Nonetheless I was really excited about it, because in all the other classes that I had, we didn't even have that conversation. We didn't talk about it at all. So imagine my surprise when I get to class and on the day that we're supposed to go over that particular chapter, my professor announces, "We're going to skip this chapter today because we do not have time to go through it."
不論如何,我還是很興奮, 因為在我上過的其他課程中, 我們甚至沒有那樣的談話, 我們完全不談它的。 所以,想像我去上課時 是有多麼驚喜的, 到了我們應該要讀 那個章節的那一天, 我的教授宣佈: 「今天我們要跳過這個章節, 因為我們沒時間去討論它。」
"Whoa, I'm sorry, hold on, professor, professor. I'm sorry. This is a really important chapter to me. Are we going to go over it at any point?"
「哇,對不起,等等,教授,教授。 對不起,對我來說這個章節很重要。 我們會找其他時間來讀它嗎?」
"Titus, we don't have time for this."
「泰特斯,我們沒時間這麼做。」
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please, I really need to understand. Clearly the author thinks that this is significant. Why are we skipping over this?"
「對不起,對不起,對不起, 拜託,我真的需要了解它。 顯然作者認為這是重要的, 為什麼我們要跳過它?」
"Titus, I do not have time for this."
「泰特斯,我沒時間來談這個。」
"OK, last question, I'm really sorry here. When can we talk, because we need to talk."
「好吧,最後一個問題, 我真的很抱歉。 那我們何時可以談? 因為我們需要談。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I went to her office hours. I ended up getting kicked out of her office. I went to the dean. The dean finally told me, "I can't force her to teach anything." And I knew in that moment if I wanted to understand this history, if I wanted to understand the roles of those folks who had to walk, I was probably going to have to figure that out myself. So ... above you right here on the slide is a painting by Frans Hals. This is one of the kinds of images that was in that chapter. I taught myself how to paint by going to museums and looking at images like this.
我在她的課輔時間去找她。 我最後被踢出她的辦公室。 我去找校長。 校長終於告訴我: 「我無法強迫她教什麼。」 在那時,我理解到, 如果我想要了解這段歷史, 如果我想要了解這些 得要走路的同胞們的角色, 我可能得要自己去想辦法。 所以…… 在上面的投影片上, 是弗蘭斯哈爾斯的畫。 這是在那個章節中 會出現的畫之一。 我自學畫畫的方式 是去博物館看像這樣的畫。
I want to show you something.
我想給各位看一樣東西。
I made this. I --
這是我畫的。 我……
(Applause)
(掌聲)
I made some alterations. You'll see there are some slight differences in the painting. All this art history that I had been absorbing helped me to realize that painting is a language. There is a reason why he is the highest in the composition here. There is a reason why the painter is showing us this gold necklace here. He's trying to tell us something about the economic status of these people in these paintings. Painting is a visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful, is important. It's coded. But sometimes, because of the compositional structure, because of compositional hierarchy, it's hard to see other things. This silk is supposed to tell us also that they have quite a bit of money. There's more written about dogs in art history than there are about this other character here. Historically speaking, in research on these kinds of paintings, I can find out more about the lace that the woman is wearing in this painting -- the manufacturer of the lace -- than I can about this character here, about his dreams, about his hopes, about what he wanted out of life.
我做了一些改變, 你們可以看到畫中有些許的不同。 我過去一直在吸收的藝術史, 協助我了解到,繪畫是一種語言。 有理由可以說明, 他為什麼在這裡有最高的位置。 有理由可以說明, 為什麼畫家要讓我們 看到這裡的金項鍊。 他試圖要告訴我們畫中這些 人物的經濟狀況。 繪畫是視覺性的語言, 畫中的一切 都有意義,都重要, 它像編碼一樣。 但有時,因為創作的結構, 因為創作的階層, 會很難看見其他東西。 這塊絲也是要用來 告訴我們,他們很有錢。 在我們的藝術史上, 對於狗的描繪還多於 這裡的這個角色。 就歷史而言,在這類繪畫的研究中, 找這畫中女人穿著的飾帶、 飾帶製造商之類的相關資訊, 多於我能找到關於這個角色的資訊, 關於他的夢想、希望, 關於他在人生中想要什麼。
I want to show you something. I don't want you to think that this is about eradication. It's not. The oil that you saw me just put inside of this paint is linseed oil. It becomes transparent over time, so eventually what's going to happen is these faces will emerge a little bit. What I'm trying to do, what I'm trying to show you, is how to shift your gaze just slightly, just momentarily, just momentarily, to ask yourself the question, why do some have to walk? What is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums? What is the impact of these kinds of paintings on some of our most vulnerable in society, seeing these kinds of depictions of themselves all the time? I'm not saying erase it. We can't erase this history. It's real. We have to know it. I think of it in the same way we think of --
我想給各位看一樣東西。 我不希望你們認為 這與根絕有關。 並不是。 你們剛剛看到我塗在畫上的油, 是亞麻子油。 隨時間過去,它會變透明。 最終會發生的事情是, 這些臉孔… 會漸漸出現。 我在試圖做的是, 我在試圖給各位看的是, 是如何稍微轉移你的注視, 只要短暫一下, 只要短暫一下, 問問你自己這個問題, 為什麼有人得要走路? 在博物館中這類雕像的影響是什麼? 這類畫作對於社會中 最脆弱的那些人有什麼影響, 總是看到自己被這樣地描繪? 我並不是說要抹除它。 我們無法抹滅歷史。 它是真實的。我們得要知道它。 我去思考它的方式,就如同 我們思考……
Let me step back a second. You remember old-school cameras, where when you took a picture, you actually had to focus. Right? You'd put the camera up, and if I wanted you in focus, I would move the lens a little to the left and you would come forward. I could move the lens a little to the right, and you would go back and the folks in the background would come out. I'm just trying to do that here. I'm trying to give you that opportunity. I'm trying to answer that question that my son had. I want to make paintings, I want to make sculptures that are honest, that wrestle with the struggles of our past but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present. And we can't do that by taking an eraser and getting rid of stuff. That's just not going to work. I think that we should do it in the same way the American Constitution works. When we have a situation where we want to change a law in the American Constitution, we don't erase the other one. Alongside that is an amendment, something that says, "This is where we were, but this is where we are right now." I figure if we can do that, then that will help us understand a little bit about where we're going.
讓我暫時先退回來一步。 你們記得老式照像機嗎? 拍照時還真的得要調焦聚,對嗎? 先把相機架起來, 如果我想要聚焦在你身上, 我會把鏡頭稍微向左旋轉, 你就會凸顯出來。 我可以把鏡頭向右旋轉一點, 你就會失焦,而背景的人會凸顯出來。 我在嘗試做的就是這個。 我在嘗試給你們那個機會。 我在嘗試回答我兒子問的那個問題。 我想要畫畫, 我想要雕塑, 我的作品要誠實, 要與我們過去的掙扎進行角力, 要能夠談及現今的多樣化和進步。 用個橡皮擦把東西擦掉 並不是可行的辦法, 那樣不會有用。 我認為我們的做法應該類似 美國憲法運作的方式。 當我們遇到 想要改變美國憲法 法條的情況時, 我們並不會把另一條給擦掉。 我們是在旁邊放一條修正條款, 它會寫說: 「這是我們過去的狀況, 這是我們現在的狀況。」 我認為,如果我們能那樣做, 那就能協助我們多了解一點 我們在前進的方向。
Thank you.
謝謝各位。
(Applause)
(掌聲)