There's an old saying, "Just because you can't see something, doesn't mean it's not there." My work is -- it's a reflection of myself. What I wanted to do is to show the world that the little things can be the biggest things. We all seem to think that, you know, if we look down on the ground, there's nothing there. And we use the word "nothing." Nothing doesn't exist, because there is always something. My mother told me that, when I was a child, that I should always respect the little things.
「目に見えないからといって 存在しないわけではない」 こんな古いことわざがある 私の作品は 自分自身を反映したものだ 私がやりたかったのは 小さなものが 大きなことになり得ると 世界に示すこと 人間って誰でも地面を見下ろすと そこには何もないって思いがちだね 人は「何もない」って言うけど 必ず何かがあるので 何もないなんてない 子どもの頃 母は言った 小さなものへの尊敬を忘れるなってね
What made me do this work? I shall go into my story. This all started when I was age five. What made me do it? At school, I will admit this: academically, I couldn't express myself. So I was, more or less, classed as "nothing." My world was seen as less. So I decided I didn't really want to be a part of that world. I thought, I need to retreat into something else. So when my mother used to take me to school, she thought I was at school, and I used to do a U-turn, when her back was turned, and run off and hide in the shed at the back of the garden.
この仕事を始めたきっかけを話そう それは5歳のときのことだった 正直に言うと 学校では 自分を表現できない子どもで 「何もない」子どもとして見られていたんだ 私の世界は 低くみられてた だからそんな世界にはいたくなくて どこか逃げ場が 必要だと思ったんだ 私を学校に連れて行った母は 私が学校にいると思い込んでいたけど 私は家へと引き返して さっと 庭の物置へと隠れてた
Now, the one time I was in the shed, and my mother suspected something, thinking I was at school. My mother was like the woman in Tom and Jerry. So you'd just see her feet. (Laughter) So I was hiding in the shed, like that. And all of a sudden ... And then I saw her legs. And then she said -- grabbed me like that, because my mother was quite big -- and she lifted me up and she says, "How come you're not at school?" I told her I couldn't face it because the way the teacher was treating me, ridiculing me, and using me as an example of failure. So I told her. At that age, obviously, I couldn't express it that way, but I told her I didn't feel right. And then she just said, "You're going back to school tomorrow." And walked off. And I didn't expect that, because I expected one of these ... But I didn't get it.
物置に隠れていたあるとき 母は何かを感じ取ったようだった 私は学校にいると思っていたようだけどね 母はトムとジェリーに出てくる女の人のようだった 足しか見えないのさ (笑) だから私は物置にこんな感じで隠れていたら 突然… 母の足が目に入ってきた 体が大きかった母は私をこうやってつかみ 持ち上げて言ったんだ “なんで学校にいないんだい?” 先生が優しくしてくれず 自分が馬鹿にされたり 落ちこぼれだと言われていると 母に伝えた でも 当時はそのようにうまく言えず 気分がよくないと伝えたんだ 母は“明日は行くんだよ” とだけ言った 予想外だったね ひどくしかられるだろう って思ったから… でも違ったんだ
So I'm sitting there thinking. And as I looked down on the ground, I noticed there was some ants running around. And I went into this little fantasy world. And I thought, "These ants, are they looking for the queen ant? Or do they need somewhere to live?" So I thought "Perhaps, if I made these ants some apartments, they'll move in." (Laughter) So I did. And how I set about that, I got some splinters of wood. And I sliced the little splinters of wood with a broken shard of glass, constructed this little apartment. Well it looked like a little shanty shed when I'd finished. But I thought, perhaps the ant won't know, it'll probably move in. And so they did. That was a bit crude, at the time. And I made all these little apartments and little merry-go-rounds, seesaws and swings, little ladders. And then I encouraged the ants to come 'round by putting sugar and things like that. And then I sat down and all the ants came along. And all I could hear was "Is this for us?"
それで 私はそこに座って考えた 地面を見たら アリがいるのに気がついた そして空想の世界へと入り込んだ 私はこう思ったんだ “女王アリを探しているのかな” “それとも 家が必要なの?” “僕がアリの家をつくったら―” “きっと アリは” “引っ越してくるんじゃないかな” (笑) それで 家をつくったんだ 木のとげを集めてきて ガラス片で切り裂いた そして 小さなアパートを作ったのさ 出来あがったとき 掘っ立て小屋のようにしか見えなかったけど アリは住んでくれるんじゃないかと思ったよ 予想通りだったね 出来は良くなかったけど それから小さなアパートや メリーゴーランド シーソー ブランコ 梯子などを作ったんだ アリに住んでもらいたくて 砂糖でおびき寄せたりもした 座って様子を伺っていると アリがやって来て “僕たちに作ってくれたの?” って言うのさ
(Laughter)
(笑)
And I say, "Yes, they're all for you." And they moved in, and decided not to pay me any rent. (Laughter) And from there I was watching this little world. It became part of me.
“君たちのお家だよ” って答えると アリはそこで暮らし始めたんだ 家賃は払ってくれなかったけど (笑) それ以来 この小さな世界を見てるってわけ 私の一部になったんだ
When I discovered that I had this gift, I wanted to experiment with this world that we can't see. So I realized that there was more to life than just everything that we see around us that's huge. So I started to educate myself on this molecular level. And as I got older, I continued. I showed my mother. My mother told me to take it smaller.
このような才能に気づいたとき 目には見えない世界を 作りだしたいと思った 私たちを取り囲む大きなものだけではなく もっと人生には大切なことがあると 気づいたのさ それで私は小さな分子のような物について独学を始めた 大きくなってからも続け 母に見せたら もっと小さくしたらと言われたんだ
Now I shall show you something here. And I'll explain. As you can see, that's a pinhead.
ここで作品をお見せしよう ここで作ったのは ご覧の通り ピンの頭さ
(Laughter)
(笑)
(Applause)
(拍手)
Now that is called the Huf Haus. The gentleman who commissioned me to do this was a gentleman called Peter Huf. And he says to me "Willard, can you put my house on a pinhead?"
これはハフ ハウスという作品 作品の依頼をしてきた紳士が ハフさんという方でね “ピンの頭に家を作れるかな?” って尋ねてきた
(Laughter)
(笑)
So I say, "How are you going to fit in there?"
“そんなに小さかったら入れないだろう” って 返したさ
(Laughter)
(笑)
And then he said to me, "I don't believe you can do it. Can you really do it?"
そしたら彼は言った “作れると思わないな 本当にできるかい?”
And I says, "Well, try me." And then he said, "But I don't believe that you can do this." So I said, "OK."
“できるとも” ”いや できるとは思えないな”という彼に ”わかったよ”と答えたね
So, to cut a long story short, I went home, went underneath the microscope, and I crushed up a piece of glass, crushed it up. And underneath the microscope there were splinters of glass. Some of them were quite jagged. So I was crushing up these pieces of glass, which, as you can see, that's the actual frame of the house. And the actual roof is made up of a fiber, which I found in my sister's old teddy bear. (Laughter) So I got the teddy bear and I said, "Do you mind if I pull out one of your fibers?" So I did. And I looked at it beneath the microscope. And some of it was flat. So I decided to slice these up with the tool that I make by -- I sharpen the end of a needle into a blade. And then I actually slow down my whole nervous system. And then I work between my heartbeat, I have one-and-a-half seconds to actually move. And at the same time I have to watch I don't inhale my own work, at the same time. (Laughter) (Applause) Because that has happened to me.
手短にいうと 家に帰って ガラス片を砕いたんだ それを 顕微鏡で見た ガラス片をね ギザギザしてた ガラス片を粉々にして ここでわかるように 家のフレームにしたのさ 屋根は本物の繊維だ 姉のテディベアから取ったのさ (笑) テディベアには尋ねたよ “繊維をもらってもいいかな?” ってね 繊維を拝借して 顕微鏡で見たら 平らな繊維が見つかった その繊維を切り裂いた 針の先を鋭く研いで作った― 道具を使って切り裂いた だんだん私の神経は 落ち着いてきた 鼓動と鼓動の間に仕事をするのさ 作業ができるのは 1.5秒なんだ 気をつけなくちゃいけないのは 息を吸って 作品を吸い込まないこと (笑) (拍手) 吸い込んじゃったことがあるからね
(Laughter)
(笑)
So what I did, like I said, come back to the glass. I found these little bits of glass. And I had to make them square. So I'm thinking "How can I do this?" So what I did, I got an oilstone. Broke the edge of an oilstone off. And what I did, I took pieces of glass. And I started to rub them. I used a little tweezer which I made from a hair clip. And I built rubber around the end of the tweezer so it wouldn't crush the glass. And then I started rubbing, very very gently, till some of the edges were quite square. And then I constructed it. And how I constructed it, is by making grooves in the top of the pinhead. And then pushing the glass in with its own friction. And as I was doing it, what happened? The instrument that I used turned into a catapult. And it went like this ... And then that was it.
ガラスの話に戻ると この小さなガラス片を どうにか四角い形にしたかった どうやってやろうかと思案してた オイルストーンを手に入れ 角を砕き ガラス片をこすり始めた 髪留めで作ったピンセットを使うんだけど ガラスを割らないように ピンセットにはゴムを巻き付けた そして優しくこすり始めたんだ 形が四角になるまでこすってから組み立てた 組み立て方は ピンの頭に 溝をつけて その中に摩擦でガラスが入り込むようにした その作業をしてるとき 使っていた道具が射出機のようになって ピョーンと飛んでしまった 時すでに遅し
(Laughter)
(笑)
Gone. So I'm thinking, "Mr. Huf isn't going to be very happy when I told him his house has gone to another, into the atmosphere somewhere." So to cut the story short, I decided that I had to go back and do it. So I found some more. And I decided to, sort of, construct it very, very slowly, holding my breath, working between my heartbeat, and making sure everything is leveled. Because it's such a small sculpture, nothing can go wrong. And I decided to build it up. Then I used fibers out of my jumper, which I held and stretched. And made the beams going around the house. And the actual windows and the balcony had to be sort of constructed. I used a money spider's web to actually attach certain things, which sent me insane. But I managed to do it. And when I finished it, I came back the next day. I noticed that the house was occupied. Have we ever heard of a dust mite? Darren dust mite and his family moved in.
失くしちゃったのさ “家を失くしたって言ったら” “ハフさんは よく思わないだろうなあ” どっかに飛んで行ってしまったんだから… 結局わたしは もう一度やり直すことにしたんだ 飛び散った一部を見つけたので ゆっくりと組み立てることにした 息を止めて 心臓の鼓動の間に手を動かし 全てが平らなことを確かめながらね あまりにも小さいから 間違いは許されないんだ 組み立てることを決めて ジャンパーの繊維を使った その繊維を伸ばして 家の周りの梁を作った 窓とバルコニーを 組み立てなくてはいけなかった サクラグモの糸を 糊の代わりに使ったんだけど 厄介で しょうがなかった どうにかやりとおしたけどね 家を完成させた翌日 住人がいることに気づいたんだ 塵ダニの声を聞いたことがある方は? 塵ダニ一家が引っ越してきたんだ
(Laughter)
(笑)
So basically I'd completed the house. And there you are.
こうやって家を完成させた ほらね
(Applause)
(拍手)
(Laughter)
(笑)
Right. As you can see, Bart Simpson is having a little argument. I think they're arguing about the space on the pin. There's not enough room for the two of them. So I didn't think he was going to throw Bart off. I think he was just warning him actually. But this one was made out of a nylon tag out of my shirt. What I did, I plucked the tag out and put it underneath the microscope. I used the needle which has got a slight blade on the end. Can anybody see the blade on the end of that needle?
ご覧の通り バート・シンプソンが何やら怒っているね ピンの頭のスペースに関して議論しているようだ 二人分なんてないぞってね バートを突き落とすつもりはなかったと思う きっと脅してたんだろうね これは わたしのナイロン製のシャツから 生地をはぎ取って作ったんだ タグを取って 顕微鏡で覗き 先が刃のようになった針を使った 針の先の刀が見えるかな?
Audience: No.
客席: いいえ
WW: So what I did is the same process where I just kind of hold my breath and just work away very, very slowly, manipulating the plastic, cutting it, because it behaves different. Whenever you work on that level, things behave different. Because it's on this molecular level things change and they act different. And sometimes they turn into little catapults and things go up in the air. And, you know, all different things happen. But I had to make a little barrier, going around it, out of cellophane, to stop it moving. Then static electricity set in. And it went ... And I'm trying to remove it. And the static is interfering with everything. So there is sweat dripping off my head, because I have to carve Homer Simpson like that, in that position. And after I've cut out the shape, then I have to make sure that there is room for Bart's neck.
ここでも同じように 息を止めて ゆっくりと仕事を続けるんだ プラスチックを使って 切ったり 工夫が必要 これだけの作業になると 予想がつかないこともある 分子レベルになると普通のようにはいかず 違った性質をもつんだ 時にはピョーンと飛んだり 空中に投げだされてしまう いろんなことが起こるのさ セロファンを使って固定できるように 周囲に囲いをつけたら 静電気が起きて 大変だった 静電気には困ったね 額から汗がしたたり落ちたよ ホーマー・シンプソンを あんな格好に削らないといけないからね その形に削った後 バートの首の部分のスペースも 確保しなくちゃいけない
So after I've done the same thing, then I have to paint it. And after I've actually sculpted them, I have to paint them. I experimented with a -- I found a dead fly. And I plucked the hair off the fly's head. Decided to make a paintbrush. (Laughter) But I would never do it to a living fly. (Laughter) Because I've heard a fly in pain. And they go "Meow! Ow!" Even though they get on our nerves, I would never kill an insect because, "All creatures great and small" -- there is a hymn that says that. So what I decided to do is to pluck fine hair out of my face. And I looked at it underneath the microscope. That was the paintbrush. And whilst I'm painting I have to be very careful, because the paint starts to turn into little blobs. And it starts to dry very quickly. So I have to be very quick. If I'm not, it will end up looking not like what it's supposed to look like. It could end up looking like Humpty Dumpty or somebody else. So I have to be very very careful.
同じことをした後に 色を塗るんだ 彼らを彫ってから 色を塗るんだ 死んだハエを使って ある事を試した ハエの頭から毛を抜いて 筆にすることにしたんだ (笑) 生きているハエには 絶対にしないよ (笑) ハエが苦しんでいるのが聞こえたのさ “痛いよー” ってね 彼らには イライラさせられるけど わたしは 虫を殺しはしない “生き物は大きくても小さくても” そんな讃美歌があるしね だから 自分の顔のうぶ毛を 抜くことにしたんだ 顕微鏡で覗いて 筆にすることにした 色をつけるときは慎重にしないとだめだ ペンキがダマになってしまうんだ それにすぐに乾いてしまう 素早く作業をしないといけない じゃないと なるべき姿に 近づけないんだ ハンプティダンプティのようになっちゃうからね だから 十分気をつけなくちゃいけない
This one took me approximately, I would say, six to seven weeks. My work, rough estimate, sometimes five, six to seven weeks; you can't always anticipate. (Applause) As you can see, that's Charlton Heston brought down to size. (Laughter) He says to me, "Willard" -- You can see him saying, "Why me?" I says, "I enjoyed your film. That's why." As you can see, there's an aphid fly there. That's just to show the scale and the actual size of the sculpture. I would say it probably measures ... a quarter of a millimeter. In America they say a period stop. So say if you cut a period stop in half, a full stop, that's about the size of the whole thing. It's made -- the chariot is made of gold.
これは完成までに 6、7週間かかった 作品はだいたい 5~7週間くらいで完成させる 必ずしも予測できないんだ (拍手) これは見ての通り チャールストン・ヘストンのミニチュア版 (笑) “ウィラード なんで僕なの?” 彼は尋ねるんだ “映画が良かったからだよ” って答るわけさ 写真に写っているのは ハエ 実際の彫刻の大きさが わかるようにね きっと大きさは 4分の1ミリくらいかな 文章を書くときのピリオドを 半分にしたくらいの大きさが この作品の大きさだ 馬車は金で作ってある
And Charlton Heston is made of a floating fiber, which I took out of the air. When the sunlight comes through the window you see these little fibers. And what I normally do is walk 'round a room -- (Laughter) -- trying to find one. And then I put it underneath the microscope. I remember one time I was doing it, and the window was open. And there was a lady standing by the bus stop. And she saw me walking around like this. (Laughter) And then she looked at me. And then I went ... And then she went, "Hmm, OK, he's not mad." Yeah, to actually do this thing -- the actual chariot is made of gold. I had a 24-karat gold ring. And I cut off a little flake of gold. And I bent it 'round, and made it into the chariot. And the horse is made from nylon. And the spider's web is for the reins on the horse. To get the symmetrical shape of the horse was very difficult, because I had to get the horse to rear up and look as though it was in some kind of action.
チャールストン・ヘストンは空中に漂っていた― 繊維で作った 繊維が陽ざしに照らされて 空中に浮いていることがあるね わたしは部屋を歩き回って (笑) 繊維を見つけ 顕微鏡で覗くんだ ある時そうしていたら 窓が開いていて バス停で待っている女性がいたんだ 彼女は歩き回るわたしを見て (笑) わたしのことを見た だからわたしもこうやったら “狂ってはいないようね” って思ったらしい この馬車を作るのに 金を用いたんだ 24金の指輪を持っていたので 金を薄く削って 切り取り丸みをつけてから 馬車をつくり上げた 馬はナイロン製 クモの糸を手綱にした 馬を対称的に作るのが とても難しかった 馬が後足で立って 動きを出したかったからね
When I did this one, a gentleman seen it and said to me, "There's no way you can do this, you must have used some kind of machine. There's no way a man can do that. It must be a machine." So I says, "OK then, if you say it's a machine ..." (Laughter) (Applause) That one took me approximately six weeks. (Applause)
これを作ったとき ある男性が言ったんだ “機械なしでこんなの作れるもんか” “人間が作れるもんじゃない” “絶対に機械だね” だから “そんなに機械だって言うなら…” (笑) (拍手) この作品にかかった時間は6週間ほど (拍手)
The most famous statue in the world. This one, I would say, was a serious challenge. (Laughter) Because I had to put the torch on the top. That one is, more or less, the same type of process. The bottom of it is carved from a grain of sand, because I wanted to get a bit of the stone effect. I used a microscopic shard of diamond to actually carve the actual base. Well, I can look at this one and I can be very proud of this, because that statue has always sort of kept an image in my head of, you know, the beginning of people coming to America. So it's sort of Ellis Island, and seeing America for the first time. And that's the first thing they saw. So I wanted to have that little image. And this is it. (Laughter)
世界一有名な像ですね これは 本当に 手こずったよ (笑) たいまつをのせなくちゃいけないからね これも同じような作り方で 土台は砂を削ってつくってある 石を使っているようにしたかった 微小のダイアモンド片を使って 土台を削ったんだ この作品を見ると 誇らしげに感じるんだ だって 自由の女神は アメリカに移民した最初の人たちの 印象がわたしにはあるからね エリス島や初めてアメリカを目にした光景さ 彼らの目に最初に入ったもの その光景を作りだしたくて 作ったのが これさ (笑)
And we all know that is the Hulk. I wanted to create movement in the eye of a needle. Because we know we see needles, but people aren't familiar with the eye of a needle apart from putting a thread through it. So I broke the needle. And made a needle look like the Hulk's broken it. It's -- I had to make little holes in the base of the needle, to shove his feet in. So most of my work, I don't use glue. They go in with their own friction. And that's how I managed to do it. As you can see, he's looking at the moment. He's got a little grimace on his face. And his mouth must be probably about three microns. So the eyes are probably about one micron or something.
これはハルクなのはわかるね 針の穴に動きをもたせたかった 誰でも針を見ることはある でも糸を通す以外 針の穴にはなじみが薄い だから針を折って いかにもハルクが 折ったようにした 足を入れるために 針の底に小さな穴を開けた わたしは糊を使うことは 滅多にない 摩擦で落ち着いてくれるからだ ここでも 摩擦を利用している ハルクは顔をしかめているね きっと口は 3ミクロンほどだ 目は1ミクロンくらいかな
That ship there, that's made from 24-karat gold. And I normally rig it with the web of a money spider. But I had to rig it with strands of glue. Because the web of the spider, it was sending me insane, because I couldn't get the web to move off. And that's 24-karat gold. And it's constructed. I built it. Constructed each plank of gold. And the whole thing is sort of symmetrical. The flag had to be made out of little strands of gold. It's almost like doing a surgical operation to get this thing right. (Applause)
ここにある船は 24金でつくったもの 索具はクモの糸を使うことにしているけど これには接着剤を代用した クモの糸は厄介だった 手に絡まるんだ これは24金で作ったもの 金板を組み立てた すべてが対称的になってる 旗も糸状の金から作った これを完成するには 手術を行っているような気になるよ (拍手)
As you can see, dressage. (Laughter) It's something I wanted to do just to show how I could get the symmetrical shape. The actual rigging on the reins on the horse are made from the same sort of thing. And that was done with a particle from my shirt. And the pinhead I've made green around there by scraping the particles off a green shirt and then pressed onto the needle. It's very painstaking work, but the best things come in small packages.
これは馬場馬術 (笑) 左右対称な形の作り方を見せたかっただけさ 手綱の索具も 同じようなもので作ったんだ 自分のシャツをちょこっと切って ピンの頭は緑に塗り 緑のシャツの一部を切り取って 針に押し付けるようにした 本当に苦労したよ でも 極上のものは包みが小さいんだよね
(Laughter)
(笑)
Bruno Giussani: Willard Wigan!
ウィラード・ウィーガンさんでした
(Applause)
(拍手)