A journey through the mind of an artist | Dustin Yellin

Translator: Jennifer González Reviewer: Xosé María Moreno

I was raised by lesbians in the mountains,

Fun criado por lesbianas nas montañas

and I sort of came like a forest gnome to New York City a while back.

e cheguei como un gnomo do bosque a Nova York xa hai tempo.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

Really messed with my head, but I'll get into that later.

Coa cabeza feita un bo lío, pero deixaremos iso para despois.

I'll start with when I was eight years old.

Comezarei con cando tiña oito anos.

I took a wood box,

Collín unha caixa de madeira,

and I buried a dollar bill, a pen and a fork inside this box in Colorado.

e enterrei un billete, un boli e un garfo

nalgures en Colorado.

And I thought some strange humanoids or aliens in 500 years would find this box

E pensei que algunha clase de humanoides raros ou extraterrestres

nuns 500 anos, atoparían esta caixa

and learn about the way our species exchanged ideas,

e aprenderían o xeito en que as nosas especies trocan ideas.

Talvez como comemos espaguetes. Eu que sei!

maybe how we ate our spaghetti.

I really didn't know.

Anyway, this is kind of funny,

De todos modos, ten a súa graza

because here I am, 30 years later, and I'm still making boxes.

porque aquí estou, 30 anos despois, e aínda estou a facer caixas.

Now, at some point I was in Hawaii --

Así que, en certo momento estaba en Hawai

--gústame ir de excursión, facer surf e esas cousas raras.

I like to hike and surf and do all that weird stuff,

and I was making a collage for my ma.

Estaba facendo unha colaxe para a miña nai e collín un dicionario, esfolleino,

And I took a dictionary and I ripped it up,

and I made it into a sort of Agnes Martin grid,

e fixen como unha cuadrícula ó estilo Agnes Martin,

and I poured resin all over it and a bee got stuck.

enzoufeina con resina e unha abella quedou atrapada.

Now, she's afraid of bees and she's allergic to them,

Mamá tenlle medo ás abellas, é alérxica,

so I poured more resin on the canvas, thinking I could hide it or something.

así que boteille máis resina ó lenzo, pensando que podería agachala ou algo.

Instead, the opposite happened:

En cambio, sucedeu o contrario.

It sort of created a magnification,

Magnificouse dalgunha maneira,

like a magnifying glass, on the dictionary text.

como unha lente de aumento sobre o dicionario.

So what did I do? I built more boxes.

Entón que fixen? Construín máis caixas.

This time, I started putting electronics, frogs,

Esta vez, empecei a pór aparellos electrónicos, ras,

strange bottles I'd find in the street -- anything I could find --

botellas estrañas que atopaba na rúa, calquera cousa que atopase;

because I was always finding things my whole life,

porque atopei cousas toda a miña vida,

and trying to make relationships and tell stories between these objects.

e tratei de relacionalas e contar as historias entre eses obxectos.

So I started drawing around the objects,

Deste modo, comecei a debuxar arredor destes obxectos,

and I realized: Holy moly, I can draw in space!

e decateime de que: Manda carallo! Podo debuxar no espazo!

I can make free-floating lines,

Podo facer que os trazos floten en liberdade,

like the way you would draw around a dead body at a crime scene.

igual que debuxar arredor dun cadáver na escena do delito.

So I took the objects out,

Así que saquei os obxectos

and I created my own taxonomy of invented specimens.

e creei a miña propia taxinomía de espécimes inventados.

First, botanical -- which you can kind of get a sense of.

Primeiro a botánica, da que podedes facervos unha idea.

Then I made some weird insects and creatures.

Despois insectos raros e bichos.

It was really fun; I was just drawing on the layers of resin.

Era moi divertido debuxar nas capas de resina.

And it was cool, because I was actually starting to have shows and stuff,

E foi marabilloso, porque empecei coas exposicións e esas cousas.

I was making some money, I could take my girlfriend for dinner,

Gañaba cartos, xa podía levar a miña moza cear,

and like, go to Sizzler.

e ir, por exemplo, ó Sizzler.

It was some good shit, man.

Unha cousa caralluda, tíos.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

At some point, I got up to the human form,

Chegado un punto, intereseime pola forma humana.

life-size resin sculptures with drawings of humans inside the layers.

Escultura de resina a tamaño real, con debuxos humanos dentro das capas.

This was great, except for one thing:

Foi xenial, excepto por unha cousa:

I was going to die.

Ía dereito á morte.

I didn't know what to do, because the resin was going to kill me.

Non sabía que facer porque a resina íame matar

And I went to bed every night thinking about it.

e deitábame tódalas noites pensando niso.

So I tried using glass.

Así que tratei de empregar vidro.

I started drawing on the layers of glass,

Comecei a debuxar nas capas de vidro,

almost like if you drew on a window, then you put another window,

case como se debuxas nunha fiestra, e logo pos outra fiestra, e outra fiestra...

and another window, and you had all these windows together

e tiña todas esas fiestras xuntas formando una composición tridimensional.

that made a three-dimensional composition.

And this really worked, because I could stop using the resin.

E isto realmente funcionou porque podía deixar de utilizar resina.

So I did this for years,

Fixen isto durante anos,

which culminated in a very large work, which I call "The Triptych."

o que culminou nunha grande obra que chamei O tríptico.

O tríptico estaba inspirado en boa medida

"The Triptych" was largely inspired

by Hieronymus Bosch's "[The] Garden of Earthly Delights,"

por O xardín das delicias de Hieronymus Bosch.

which is a painting in the [Museo del] Prado in Spain.

Un cadro que está no museo do Prado, en España.

Do you guys know this painting?

Coñecédelo?

Good, it's a cool painting.

Si, eh? Está moi ben.

It's kind of ahead of its time, they say.

Disque está adiantado ó seu tempo.

So, "The Triptych." I'll walk you through this piece.

Entón O tríptico. Vou falarvos un pouco sobre esta peza:

It weighs 24,000 pounds.

Pesa 11.000 kilos.

It's 18 feet long.

Mide 5 metros e medio de longo.

It's double-sided, so it's 36 feet of composition.

Ten dobre cara, o que veñen sendo 10 metros de composición.

It's kind of weird.

É rariño.

Ben, esta é a fonte de sangue.

Well, that's the blood fountain.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

To the left, you have Jesus and the locusts.

Á esquerda temos a Xesús máis as lagostas.

There's a cave

Hai una cova

where all these animal-headed creatures travel between two worlds.

onde todos estes seres con cabeza de animal viaxan entre dous mundos.

They go from the representational world,

Van dun mundo de representación

to this analog-mesh underworld, where they're hiding.

a este inframundo de rede analóxica, onde se agochan.

This is where the animal-headed creatures are by the lighthouse,

Aquí están os seres con cabeza de bicho xunto ó faro,

and they're all about to commit mass suicide into the ocean.

a piques de suicidarse en masa botándose ó océano.

The ocean is made up of thousands of elements.

O océano está composto por centos de elementos.

This is a bird god tied up to a battleship.

Este é un deus paxaro atado a un acoirazado.

(Laughter)

Billy Graham is in the ocean;

Billy Graham está no océano;

the Horizon from the oil spill; Waldo; Osama Bin Laden's shelter --

o Horizon o buque do derramo petrolífero;

Waldo; o refuxio de Osama Bin Laden.

there's all kinds of weird stuff that you can find

Unha chea de cousas raras que podedes atopar

if you look really hard, in the ocean.

buscando ben a fondo no océano.

Anyway, this is a lady creature.

Esta é unha especie de muller-bicho.

Está saíndo do océano e está a cuspir petróleo nunha man,

She's coming out of the ocean, and she's spitting oil into one hand

and she has clouds coming out of her other hand.

e ten nubes saíndolle da outra.

Her hands are like scales,

A súas mans son coma balanzas

and she has the mythological reference of the Earth and cosmos in balance.

é un tipo de referencia mitolóxica da Terra, o cosmos e o equilibro.

So that's one side of "The Triptych."

Esta sería unha parte d'O Tríptico.

It's a little narrative thing.

Un pouco unha narrativa.

That's her hand that she's spitting into.

Esa é a man na que está a cuspir.

E entón, cando pasamos ó outro lado,

And then, when you go to the other side,

she has like a trunk, like a bird's beak,

ten unha trompa, coma un bico de paxaro,

and she's spitting clouds out of her trunk.

e cospe nubes por esa trompa.

Then she has an 18-foot-long serpent's tail that connects "The Triptych."

Tamén ten 5 metros e medio de cola de serpe que conecta O tríptico.

Anyway, her tail catches on fire from the back of the volcano.

Secasí, o seu rabo préndese lume tralo volcán.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

I don't know why that happened.

Non sei por que pasou iso.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

That happens, you know.

Estas cousas pasan, xa sabedes.

Her tail terminates in a cycloptic eyeball,

A súa cola termina no globo ocular do cíclope

made out of 1986 terrorist cards.

feito de tarxetas terroristas do ano 1986

Have you guys seen those?

Sabedes cales digo?

They were made in the 1980's, they're like baseball cards of terrorists.

Dos anos 80, eran como os cromos de Panini dos terroristas.

Moi adiantadas ó seu tempo.

Way ahead of their time.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

That will bring you to my latest project.

Todo o cal lévanos ao meu último proxecto.

I'm in the middle of two projects:

Atópome entre dous proxectos:

One's called "Psychogeographies."

Un chámase Psicoxeografías.

It's about a six-year project to make 100 of these humans.

É un proxecto de 6 anos, para facer 100 destes humanos.

Each one is an archive of our culture,

Cada un é un arquivo da nosa cultura

through our ripped-up media and matter,

a través dos nosos medios e materiais esnaquizados,

whether it's encyclopedias or dictionaries or magazines.

tanto das nosas enciclopedias como dicionarios ou revistas.

But each one acts as a sort of an archive in the shape of a human,

Pero cada un funciona como un tipo de arquivo de forma humana

and they travel in groups of 20, 4, or 12 at a time.

e viaxan en grupos de 20, 4 ou 12 á vez.

They're like cells -- they come together, they divide.

Son como células: xúntanse, divídense.

And you kind of walk through them. It's taking me years.

É case como camiñar a través delas, está levándome anos.

Each one is basically a 3,000-pound microscope slide

Son básicamente 1300 kilos de láminas microscópicas

with a human stuck inside.

cun humano atrapado no interior.

This one has a little cave in his chest.

Este ten unha pequena cova no peito.

That's his head; there's the chest, you can kind of see the beginning.

Esta é a cabeza, aí temos o peito.

Podemos entrever unha entrada guiándonos corpo abaixo, vedes?

I'm going to go down the body for you:

There's a waterfall coming out of his chest,

Hai unha fervenza saíndolle do peito

crubrindo o seu pene, ou non-pene, ou o que sexa,

covering his penis -- or not-penis, or whatever it is,

a kind of androgynous thing.

unha especie de cousa andróxina.

I'll take you quickly through these works,

Fareivos un resumo destes traballos

because I can't explain them for too long.

porque non podo determe moito a explicalos

There are the layers, you can kind of see it.

Aí podemos distinguir as capas.

That's a body getting split in half.

Este é un corpo partido pola metade.

This one has two heads,

Este outro ten dúas cabezas

and it's communicating between the two heads.

e estanse a comunicar entre elas.

You can see the pills coming out,

Podedes ver as pílulas saíndo,

chegando a unha das cabezas desde esta figura estraña.

going into one head from this weird statue.

There's a little forest scene inside the chest cavity.

Hai unha pequena escena forestal dentro da cavidade torácica.

Can you see that?

Podedes vela?

Anyway, this talk's all about these boxes,

En fin, esta charla fala sobre todas estas caixas,

like the boxes we're in.

como as caixas nas que vivimos.

This box we're in, the solar system is a box.

A caixa na que nos atopamos, --o sistema solar é unha caixa.

This brings you to my latest box.

Isto lévame á miña última caixa.

It's a brick box. It's called Pioneer Works.

A caixa de ladrillo: chámase Pioneer Works

(Cheers)

(Ovacións)

Inside of this box is a physicist,

Dentro desta caixa hai un físico,

a neuroscientist, a painter, a musician,

un neurocientífico, un pintor, un músico,

a writer, a radio station, a museum, a school,

un escritor, unha emisora de radio, un museo, unha escola,

a publishing arm to disseminate all the content we make there into the world;

unha unidade editorial que difunde o contido que facemos ó resto do mundo,

a garden.

un xardín.

We shake this box up,

Nós axitamos esta caixa

and all these people kind of start hitting each other like particles.

e toda esa xente comeza a chocar entre si, como partículas.

And I think that's the way you change the world.

Eu creo que este é o xeito en que cambiamos o mundo.

You redefine your insides and the box that you're living in.

Cando redifinimos o que somos e a caixa en que vivimos

And you come together to realize that we're all in this together,

para decatarnos de que estamos todos aquí, xuntos,

that this delusion of difference --

de que esa ilusión de que somos diferentes

this idea of countries, of borders, of religion -- doesn't work.

esa concepto de países, esa idea de fronteiras, relixión... non funciona.

We're all really made up of the same stuff, in the same box.

Estamos feitos da mesma materia, na mesma caixa.

And if we don't start exchanging that stuff sweetly and nicely,

E se non comezamos a intercambiala de forma doce e amable,

we're all going to die real soon.

todos ímos morrer axiña.

Thank you very much.

Moitas grazas.

(Aplausos)

(Applause)