I believe there is beauty in hearing the voices of people who haven't been heard.
我相信去聆聽沒有被聆聽的人, 這當中有著美麗。
["Drawing the Blinds," 2014]
〔《拉上窗簾》,2014〕
["The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) III," 2014]
〔《傑若米計畫(瀝青與白堊)Ⅲ》 2014〕
[Beneath an Unforgiving Sun (From A Tropical Space)," 2020]
〔《無情太陽下(來自熱帶空間)》 2020〕
That's a complex idea, because the things that must be said are not always lovely. But somehow, if they're reflective of truth, I think, fundamentally, that makes them beautiful.
那是個複雜的想法, 因為必須要說出來的話 不見得一定都很美好。 但,在某種層面上, 如果它們反映出真相, 我想,基本上, 它們就是美麗的。
(Music)
(音樂)
There's the aesthetic beauty of the work that in some cases functions as more of a Trojan horse. It allows one to open their hearts to difficult conversations. Maybe you feel attracted to the beauty, and while compelled by the technique, the color, the form or composition, maybe the difficult conversation sneaks up.
在某些情況中,作品美感的功能 就像是特洛伊木馬一樣。 它讓人能夠打開心, 接受困難的對話。 也許你會覺得被美麗吸引, 同時很佩服用到的技巧、 色彩、形式或構圖, 也許困難的對談就悄悄出現了。
["Billy Lee and Ona Judge Portraits in Tar," 2016]
〔《比利·李和奧妮·賈奇的 焦油瀝青畫像》,2016〕
I really taught myself how to paint by spending time at museums and looking at the people that -- the artists, rather -- that I was told were the masters.
我自學畫畫的方式 是花時間在博物館裡, 去看人—— 或說藝術家——別人所稱的大師。
Looking at the Rembrandts ["The Night Watch"],
我看著林布蘭〔《守夜》〕、
Renoir ["Luncheon of the Boating Party"],
雷諾瓦〔《船上的午宴》〕、 馬奈〔《草地上的午宴》〕,
Manet ["Luncheon on the Grass"],
很明顯地,
it becomes quite obvious that if I'm going to learn how to paint a self-portrait by studying those people, I'm going to be challenged when it comes to mixing my skin or mixing the skin of those people in my family. There's literally formulas written down historically to tell me how to paint white skin -- what colors I should use for the underpainting, what colors I should use for the impasto highlights -- that doesn't really exist for dark skin. It's not a thing.
如果我要透過研究這些人 來學習如何畫自畫像, 我一定會受到挑戰, 因為我需要混合出我的膚色 或我家人的膚色。 對於要如何畫出白人的皮膚, 歷史上是已經存在公式—— 要用什麼顏色打底, 要用什麼顏色 做厚塗顏料的強調部分—— 黑皮膚沒有這些公式。 不存在。
It's not a thing because the reality is, our skin wasn't considered beautiful. The picture, the world that is represented in the history of paintings doesn't reflect me. It doesn't reflect the things that I value in that way, and that's the conflict that I struggle with so frequently, is, I love the technique of these paintings, I have learned from the technique of these paintings, and yet I know that they have no concern for me.
不存在是因為 現實是人們認為 我們的皮膚不美麗。 在繪畫歷史中 所呈現出來的那個世界、 那個寫照,沒有反映出我。 沒有用那種方式 反映出我重視的東西, 那是我經常要掙扎著面對的衝突, 我很喜愛這些畫作的技巧, 我從這些畫作的技巧中學習, 但我也知道它們完全不在乎我。
And so there are so many of us who are amending this history in order to simply say we were there. Because you couldn't see doesn't mean we weren't there. We have been there. We have been here. We've continued to be seen as not beautiful, but we are, and we are here. So many of the things that I make end up as maybe futile attempts to reinforce that idea.
所以我們有許多人 在修改這個歷史, 目的只是要說,我們也存在其中。 你看不見,不表示我們不存在。 我們一直都在那裡。 我們一直都在這裡。 我們一直被視為是不美麗的, 但我們是美麗的, 且我們在這裡。 所以,我的許多作品 最終也許依然無法加強那個觀念。
["Drawing the Blinds," 2014]
〔《拉上窗簾》,2014〕
["Seeing Through Time," 2018]
〔《看越時間》,2018〕
Even though I've had the Western training, my eye is still drawn to the folks who look like me. And so sometimes in my work, I have used strategies like whiting out the rest of the composition in order to focus on the character who may go unseen otherwise. I have cut out other figures from the painting, one, to either emphasize their absence, or two, to get you to focus on the other folks in the composition.
雖然我受過西方的訓練, 我的眼睛仍然被那些 外表與我相似的人所吸引。 有時,在我的作品中, 我會用些策略,比如 將構圖的其他部分給抹白, 讓焦點能落在本來可能 不會被看見的角色上。 我也曾經將其他人物從畫作中割掉, 一方面強調他們的缺席, 二方面讓你專注在 構圖中的其他人身上。
["Intravenous (From a Tropical Space)," 2020]
〔《靜脈內(來自 熱帶空間)》,2020〕
So "The Jerome Project," aesthetically, draws on hundreds of years of religious icon painting,
在美感上來說,《傑若米計劃》 利用了數百年的 宗教肖像繪畫,
["The Jerome Project (My Loss)," 2014]
〔《傑若米計劃》 (我的損失),2014〕
a kind of aesthetic structure that was reserved for the church, reserved for saints.
一種教堂、聖人專用的 美感結構。〔《聖母子》〕
["Madonna and Child"]
〔《希臘詩篇與新約中的一頁》〕
["Leaf from a Greek Psalter and New Testament"]
〔《基督全能的主》〕
["Christ Pantocrator"]
It's a project that is an exploration of the criminal justice system, not asking the question "Are these people innocent or guilty?", but more, "Is this the way that we should deal with our citizens?" I started a body of work, because after being separated from my father for almost 15 years, I reconnected with my father, and ... I really didn't know how to make a place for him in my life. As with most things I don't understand, I work them out in the studio. And so I just started making these portraits of mug shots, starting because I did a Google search for my father, just wondering what had happened over this 15-year period. Where had he gone? And I found his mug shot, which of course was of no surprise. But I found in that first search 97 other Black men with exactly the same first and last name, and I found their mug shots, and that -- that was a surprise. And not knowing what to do, I just started painting them.
這個計劃是在探索刑事司法體系, 不是問「這些人是 無辜的還是有罪的?」 而是問「我們應該用這種方式 對待我們的公民嗎?」 我開始創作一系列作品, 因為在與我父親分開 近十五年之後, 我和他重新連結上,且…… 我真的不知道要如何 在人生中空出個位置給他。 和所有我不了解的事物一樣, 我會在工作室中想辦法處理。 我剛開始畫這些入監照, 這是因為我 Google 搜尋了我父親, 只是想知道在這十五年間 發生了什麼事。 他去哪兒了? 然後我找到了他的入監照, 當然我並不意外。 但我在第一次的搜尋結果中 發現了另外九十七名黑人, 有完全相同的姓和名, 且我找到他們的入監照, 那——那就讓我很意外。 我不知道該怎麼辦, 所以我就開始畫他們。
Initially, the tar was a formula that allowed me to figure out how much of these men's life had been lost to incarceration. But I gave up that, and the tar became far more symbolic as I continued, because what I realized is the amount of time that you spend incarcerated is just the beginning of how long it's going to impact the rest of your life.
一開始,瀝青是一種配方, 讓我可以理解這些人 在監禁中失去了多少人生。 但我放棄了那麼做, 隨著我繼續畫下去, 瀝青變得更有象徵性, 因為我了解到, 你被監禁的時間只是個開端, 接下來監禁還會對你剩下的人生 衝擊很長的一段時間。
So in terms of beauty within that context, I know from my friend's family who have been incarcerated, who are currently incarcerated, folks want to be remembered. Folks want to be seen. We put people away for a long time, in some cases, for that one worst thing that they've done. So to a degree, it's a way of just saying, "I see you. We see you." And I think that, as a gesture, is beautiful.
所以,就那種情境中的美麗來說, 我從曾經或正在被監禁的 朋友家人那裡得知, 人會想要被記得。 人會想要被看見。 我們把人關起來很長一段時間, 在某些案例中,只因為他們 做過那麼一件大錯事。 在某種程度上, 這其實就是在說: 「我看見你了。我們看見你了。」 我想,這是一種 美麗的示意。
In the painting "Behind the Myth of Benevolence," there's almost this curtain of Thomas Jefferson painted and pulled back to reveal a Black woman who's hidden. This Black woman is at once Sally Hemings, but she's also every other Black woman who was on that plantation Monticello and all the rest of them. The one thing we do know about Thomas Jefferson is that he believed in liberty, maybe more strongly than anyone who's ever written about it. And if we know that to be true, if we believe that to be true, then the only benevolent thing to do in that context would be to extend that liberty. And so in this body of work, I use two separate paintings that are forced together on top of one another to emphasize this tumultuous relationship between Black and white in these compositions. And so, that -- that contradiction, that devastating reality that's always behind the curtain, what is happening in race relations in this country -- that's what this painting is about.
在《善行迷思的背後》畫作中, 有張似乎畫著湯瑪斯·傑佛遜的帷幔 被拉開來,揭示出 藏在後面的黑人女子。 這名黑人女子同時是莎麗·海明斯, 也代表蒙蒂塞洛農園中 每一個黑人女子, 以及所有其他黑人女子。 關於湯瑪斯·傑佛遜, 我們確實知道一件事: 他相信自由, 也許這信念比任何人 所撰寫的都還要強。 如果我們知道那是真的, 如果我們相信那是真的, 那麼在那個情境中, 唯一能做的善行 就是把那自由延伸出去。 所以,在這系列的作品中, 我用了兩張不同的畫作, 強迫疊合在一起, 來強調這些構圖中 這種黑與白之間的混亂關係。 所以,那種—— 那種矛盾, 那種讓人心力交瘁的現實, 總是藏在帷幔後, 在這個國家,種族關係 發生了什麼事—— 那正是這幅畫作的重點。
The painting is called "Another Fight for Remembrance." The title speaks to repetition. The title speaks to the kind of violence against Black people by the police that has happened and continues to happen, and we are now seeing it happen again. The painting is sort of editorialized as a painting about Ferguson. It's not not about Ferguson, but it's also not not about Detroit, it's also not not about Minneapolis.
畫作的名稱叫做 《為了紀念再打一戰》。 名稱就點出了不斷的重覆。 名稱也點出了 警方對黑人 所採用的那種暴力, 這種暴力曾經發生過, 也還持續在發生, 現在我們看到它再次發生。 這幅畫作有點算是被當成 關於佛格森的畫作來編輯。 它並非與佛格森無關, 但它也並非與底特律無關, 它亦並非與明尼亞波里斯無關。
The painting was started because on a trip to New York to see some of my own art with my brother, as we spent hours walking in and out of galleries, we ended the day by being stopped by an undercover police car in the middle of the street. These two police officers with their hands on their gun told us to stop. They put us up against the wall. They accused me of stealing art out of a gallery space where I was actually exhibiting art. And as they stood there with their hands on their weapons, I asked the police officer what was different about my citizenship than that of all of the other people who were not being disturbed in that moment. He informed me that they had been following us for two hours and that they had been getting complaints about Black men, two Black men walking in and out of galleries. That painting is about the reality, that it's not a question of if this is going to happen again, it's a question of when.
這幅畫作的起緣是因為 我和我兄弟前往紐約 去看我自己的藝術作品時, 我們有數小時的時間進出畫廊, 那天的結束方式卻是 我們在街上被臥底警車給攔下來。 兩位警員把手放在槍上, 要我們停下來,要我們面對著牆。 他們指控我從畫廊 空間中偷竊藝術品, 其實我是在那裡展覽我的藝術品。 當警員站在那裡,手放在武器上時, 我問警員,我的公民資格 和所有其他人有什麼不同, 為什麼此刻他們就不會被打擾? 他告訴我,他們已經 跟蹤我們兩個小時了, 且他們一直接到申訴, 說有兩名黑人不斷進出畫廊。 那幅畫作在畫的是現實, 問題並不是這種情況 「是否」會再次發生, 而是「何時」會再發生。
This most recent body of work is called "From a Tropical Space." This series of paintings is about Black mothers. The series of paintings takes place in a supersaturated, maybe surrealist world, not that far from the one we live in. But in this world, the children of these Black women are disappearing. What this work is really about is the trauma, the things that Black women and women of color in particular in our community have to struggle through in order to set their kids out on the path of life.
這是最新一系列的作品, 叫做《來自熱帶空間》。 這系列畫作的主題是黑人母親。 這系列畫作發生在一個 過飽和的,也許是 超自然主義的世界, 和我們所居住的世界差不多。 但在這個世界中, 這些黑人女性的孩子 正在消失。 這件作品的真正重點是創傷, 黑人女性,尤其是我們 族群中的有色人種女性, 必須要掙扎渡過什麼 才能讓她們的孩子踏上人生的道路。
What's encouraging for me is that this practice of mine has given me the opportunity to work with young people in my community. I'm quite certain the answers are not in me, but if I'm hopeful at all, it's that they may be in them.
讓我很振奮的是, 我的這種做法 讓我有機會 可以和我的族群中的年輕人合作。 我很肯定,答案不在我身上, 但若我還懷抱有希望, 也許答案會在他們身上。
"NXTHVN" is a project that started about five years ago. NXTHVN is a 40,000-square-foot arts incubator in the heart of the Dixwell neighborhood in New Haven, Connecticut. This is a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood. It is a neighborhood that has the history of jazz at every corner. Our neighborhood, in many ways, has been disinvested in. Schools are struggling to really prepare our population for the futures ahead of them. I know that creativity is an essential asset. It takes creativity to be able to imagine a future that is so different than the one that is before you. And so every artist in our program has a high school studio assistant: there's a high school student that comes from the city of New Haven who works with them and learns their craft, learns their practice. And so we've seen the ways in which pointing folks at the power of creativity can change them.
《NXTHVN》是在 大約五年前開始的計劃。 NXTHVN 是一個 四萬平方英呎的藝術孵化地, 位於康乃狄格州紐哈芬市 狄克斯威爾區的中心。 這一區主要是黑色和褐色 皮膚人種居住的地區。 這一區的每個角落 都有爵士的歷史。 我們居住的這一區, 在許多層面上都遭受到減資。 學校要非常辛苦 才能讓我們這些居民 為將來做好準備。 我知道創意是很重要的資產。 要有創意 才能夠想像出 一個不同於眼前的未來。 所以,我們計劃中的每位藝術家 都有一名高中工作室助理: 有一位來自紐哈芬市的高中生 和他們合作,學習他們的手藝, 學習他們的做法。 所以我們見識到 讓人們了解創意的力量 能如何改變他們。
Beauty is complicated, because of how we define it. I think that beauty and truth are intertwined somehow. There is something beautiful in truth-telling. That is: that as an act, truth-telling and the myriad ways it manifests -- there's beauty in that.
美麗是很複雜的, 那是因為我們定義它的方式。 我認為美麗和真相 以某種方式編結在一起。 有某種 美麗 存在於訴說真相當中。 就是: 訴說真相的這個動作, 以及它各式各樣的呈現方式—— 有美麗存在其中。