Titus Kaphar: Can beauty open our hearts to difficult conversations? | TED

44,429 views ・ 2020-07-24

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

Translator: Reviewer: Daban Q. Jaff
00:13
I believe there is beauty
0
13325
2904
00:16
in hearing the voices of people who haven't been heard.
1
16253
4241
00:20
["Drawing the Blinds," 2014]
2
20518
1899
00:23
["The Jerome Project (Asphalt and Chalk) III," 2014]
3
23017
2525
00:25
[Beneath an Unforgiving Sun (From A Tropical Space)," 2020]
4
25566
2911
00:28
That's a complex idea,
5
28501
1220
00:29
because the things that must be said are not always lovely.
6
29745
5661
00:35
But somehow,
7
35430
1533
00:37
if they're reflective of truth,
8
37947
2745
00:40
I think, fundamentally, that makes them beautiful.
9
40716
5247
00:47
(Music)
10
47126
4218
00:53
There's the aesthetic beauty of the work
11
53574
4151
00:57
that in some cases functions as more of a Trojan horse.
12
57749
4262
01:02
It allows one to open their hearts to difficult conversations.
13
62487
6646
01:09
Maybe you feel attracted to the beauty,
14
69704
5589
01:15
and while compelled by the technique,
15
75317
4312
01:19
the color,
16
79653
1160
01:20
the form or composition,
17
80837
2150
01:23
maybe the difficult conversation sneaks up.
18
83011
2492
01:25
["Billy Lee and Ona Judge Portraits in Tar," 2016]
19
85907
2578
01:28
I really taught myself how to paint
20
88509
2995
01:31
by spending time at museums
21
91528
3346
01:34
and looking at the people that --
22
94898
3322
01:38
the artists, rather -- that I was told were the masters.
23
98244
4181
01:43
Looking at the Rembrandts ["The Night Watch"],
24
103096
2362
01:45
Renoir ["Luncheon of the Boating Party"],
25
105482
1961
01:47
Manet ["Luncheon on the Grass"],
26
107467
1558
01:49
it becomes quite obvious
27
109049
1319
01:50
that if I'm going to learn how to paint a self-portrait
28
110392
3245
01:53
by studying those people,
29
113661
2148
01:55
I'm going to be challenged
30
115833
1965
01:57
when it comes to mixing my skin
31
117822
3376
02:01
or mixing the skin of those people in my family.
32
121222
3243
02:04
There's literally formulas written down historically
33
124812
4054
02:08
to tell me how to paint white skin --
34
128890
2871
02:11
what colors I should use for the underpainting,
35
131785
2670
02:14
what colors I should use for the impasto highlights --
36
134479
3555
02:18
that doesn't really exist for dark skin.
37
138058
3197
02:21
It's not a thing.
38
141609
1262
02:22
It's not a thing
39
142895
1393
02:24
because the reality is, our skin wasn't considered beautiful.
40
144312
5655
02:31
The picture, the world that is represented in the history of paintings
41
151079
5644
02:36
doesn't reflect me.
42
156747
2276
02:39
It doesn't reflect the things that I value in that way,
43
159047
5049
02:44
and that's the conflict that I struggle with so frequently,
44
164120
3917
02:48
is, I love the technique of these paintings,
45
168061
4657
02:52
I have learned from the technique of these paintings,
46
172742
2733
02:55
and yet I know that they have no concern for me.
47
175499
5627
03:01
And so there are so many of us who are amending this history
48
181825
6016
03:07
in order to simply say we were there.
49
187865
2615
03:11
Because you couldn't see doesn't mean we weren't there.
50
191425
3373
03:14
We have been there.
51
194822
1201
03:16
We have been here.
52
196047
1460
03:18
We've continued to be seen as not beautiful,
53
198173
4522
03:23
but we are,
54
203885
1794
03:25
and we are here.
55
205703
1408
03:27
So many of the things that I make
56
207500
3629
03:31
end up as maybe futile attempts to reinforce that idea.
57
211153
5826
03:37
["Drawing the Blinds," 2014]
58
217003
2049
03:39
["Seeing Through Time," 2018]
59
219588
2069
03:42
Even though I've had the Western training,
60
222009
6039
03:48
my eye is still drawn to the folks who look like me.
61
228072
4222
03:52
And so sometimes in my work,
62
232318
2156
03:54
I have used strategies like whiting out the rest of the composition
63
234498
5812
04:00
in order to focus on the character who may go unseen otherwise.
64
240334
5256
04:06
I have cut out other figures from the painting,
65
246169
5498
04:11
one, to either emphasize their absence,
66
251691
2640
04:14
or two, to get you to focus on the other folks in the composition.
67
254355
5722
04:20
["Intravenous (From a Tropical Space)," 2020]
68
260101
2121
04:22
So "The Jerome Project," aesthetically, draws on hundreds of years
69
262246
4999
04:27
of religious icon painting,
70
267269
3640
04:30
["The Jerome Project (My Loss)," 2014]
71
270933
1915
04:32
a kind of aesthetic structure that was reserved for the church,
72
272872
7000
04:39
reserved for saints.
73
279896
1795
04:41
["Madonna and Child"]
74
281715
1003
04:42
["Leaf from a Greek Psalter and New Testament"]
75
282742
2193
04:44
["Christ Pantocrator"]
76
284959
1083
04:46
It's a project that is an exploration of the criminal justice system,
77
286066
3992
04:51
not asking the question "Are these people innocent or guilty?",
78
291319
4252
04:55
but more, "Is this the way that we should deal with our citizens?"
79
295595
5041
05:01
I started a body of work,
80
301282
1996
05:03
because after being separated from my father
81
303302
3289
05:06
for almost 15 years,
82
306615
2676
05:09
I reconnected with my father, and ...
83
309315
3905
05:14
I really didn't know how to make a place for him in my life.
84
314790
4446
05:19
As with most things I don't understand,
85
319260
3369
05:22
I work them out in the studio.
86
322653
2143
05:25
And so I just started making these portraits of mug shots,
87
325406
3748
05:29
starting because I did a Google search for my father,
88
329178
3994
05:33
just wondering what had happened over this 15-year period.
89
333196
2873
05:36
Where had he gone?
90
336093
1462
05:37
And I found his mug shot, which of course was of no surprise.
91
337579
3423
05:41
But I found in that first search 97 other Black men
92
341026
5029
05:46
with exactly the same first and last name,
93
346079
2213
05:48
and I found their mug shots, and that -- that was a surprise.
94
348316
3741
05:52
And not knowing what to do,
95
352081
2253
05:54
I just started painting them.
96
354358
1753
05:57
Initially, the tar was a formula that allowed me to figure out
97
357003
4277
06:01
how much of these men's life had been lost to incarceration.
98
361304
4227
06:05
But I gave up that,
99
365555
2168
06:07
and the tar became far more symbolic
100
367747
2898
06:10
as I continued,
101
370669
1609
06:12
because what I realized is
102
372302
1256
06:13
the amount of time that you spend incarcerated is just the beginning
103
373582
3539
06:17
of how long it's going to impact the rest of your life.
104
377145
2944
06:20
So in terms of beauty within that context,
105
380113
3826
06:25
I know from my friend's family
106
385050
3562
06:28
who have been incarcerated,
107
388636
2103
06:30
who are currently incarcerated,
108
390763
2296
06:33
folks want to be remembered.
109
393083
1581
06:35
Folks want to be seen.
110
395587
2393
06:38
We put people away for a long time,
111
398004
3363
06:41
in some cases,
112
401391
1289
06:42
for that one worst thing that they've done.
113
402704
2192
06:44
So to a degree,
114
404920
2049
06:46
it's a way of just saying,
115
406993
3885
06:50
"I see you.
116
410902
1373
06:52
We see you."
117
412299
1205
06:54
And I think that, as a gesture,
118
414274
3756
06:58
is beautiful.
119
418761
1188
07:01
In the painting "Behind the Myth of Benevolence,"
120
421052
2309
07:03
there's almost this curtain of Thomas Jefferson
121
423385
4879
07:08
painted and pulled back to reveal a Black woman who's hidden.
122
428288
6316
07:15
This Black woman is at once Sally Hemings,
123
435358
4143
07:19
but she's also every other Black woman
124
439525
3291
07:22
who was on that plantation Monticello
125
442840
3470
07:26
and all the rest of them.
126
446334
1695
07:28
The one thing we do know about Thomas Jefferson
127
448053
2779
07:30
is that he believed in liberty,
128
450856
1728
07:34
maybe more strongly than anyone who's ever written about it.
129
454226
3728
07:37
And if we know that to be true, if we believe that to be true,
130
457978
3081
07:41
then the only benevolent thing to do in that context
131
461083
4106
07:45
would be to extend that liberty.
132
465213
3066
07:48
And so in this body of work,
133
468821
1805
07:50
I use two separate paintings
134
470650
4495
07:55
that are forced together on top of one another
135
475169
5168
08:00
to emphasize this tumultuous relationship between Black and white
136
480361
6947
08:07
in these compositions.
137
487332
1577
08:08
And so, that --
138
488933
1855
08:11
that contradiction,
139
491603
1807
08:13
that devastating reality that's always behind the curtain,
140
493434
4550
08:18
what is happening in race relations in this country --
141
498008
5020
08:24
that's what this painting is about.
142
504212
2805
08:30
The painting is called "Another Fight for Remembrance."
143
510947
3603
08:34
The title speaks to repetition.
144
514923
2175
08:37
The title speaks to the kind of violence against Black people
145
517122
6747
08:43
by the police
146
523893
2343
08:46
that has happened and continues to happen,
147
526260
2706
08:48
and we are now seeing it happen again.
148
528990
3027
08:52
The painting is sort of editorialized as a painting about Ferguson.
149
532566
6955
08:59
It's not not about Ferguson,
150
539545
2499
09:03
but it's also not not about Detroit,
151
543304
5124
09:08
it's also not not about Minneapolis.
152
548452
4193
09:12
The painting was started because
153
552669
2983
09:16
on a trip to New York
154
556989
1774
09:20
to see some of my own art with my brother,
155
560128
2754
09:23
as we spent hours walking in and out of galleries,
156
563815
3263
09:27
we ended the day by being stopped by an undercover police car
157
567102
6458
09:33
in the middle of the street.
158
573584
1477
09:35
These two police officers with their hands on their gun
159
575085
3089
09:38
told us to stop.
160
578198
1171
09:39
They put us up against the wall.
161
579393
1959
09:41
They accused me of stealing art
162
581376
2628
09:44
out of a gallery space where I was actually exhibiting art.
163
584028
4164
09:48
And as they stood there with their hands on their weapons,
164
588868
3030
09:51
I asked the police officer what was different about my citizenship
165
591922
4609
09:56
than that of all of the other people
166
596555
3226
09:59
who were not being disturbed in that moment.
167
599805
3886
10:04
He informed me that they had been following us for two hours
168
604238
3563
10:07
and that they had been getting complaints about Black men,
169
607825
4559
10:12
two Black men walking in and out of galleries.
170
612408
2736
10:16
That painting is about the reality,
171
616050
3465
10:20
that it's not a question
172
620889
1760
10:23
of if this is going to happen again,
173
623872
3751
10:28
it's a question of when.
174
628419
1660
10:32
This most recent body of work is called "From a Tropical Space."
175
632695
3534
10:36
This series of paintings is about Black mothers.
176
636253
4152
10:40
The series of paintings takes place in a supersaturated,
177
640429
5840
10:46
maybe surrealist world,
178
646293
1993
10:48
not that far from the one we live in.
179
648310
3558
10:51
But in this world,
180
651892
1526
10:53
the children of these Black women
181
653442
3097
10:57
are disappearing.
182
657703
1214
11:01
What this work is really about is the trauma,
183
661335
3069
11:05
the things that Black women and women of color in particular
184
665475
3560
11:09
in our community
185
669059
1167
11:10
have to struggle through in order to set their kids out
186
670250
4616
11:14
on the path of life.
187
674890
1410
11:17
What's encouraging for me
188
677701
2307
11:20
is that this practice of mine
189
680032
4884
11:24
has given me the opportunity
190
684940
2870
11:27
to work with young people in my community.
191
687834
3778
11:31
I'm quite certain the answers are not in me,
192
691636
3202
11:34
but if I'm hopeful at all,
193
694862
1530
11:36
it's that they may be in them.
194
696416
2214
11:39
"NXTHVN" is a project that started about five years ago.
195
699209
4284
11:43
NXTHVN is a 40,000-square-foot arts incubator
196
703517
3262
11:46
in the heart of the Dixwell neighborhood
197
706803
2159
11:48
in New Haven, Connecticut.
198
708986
1357
11:50
This is a predominantly Black and Brown neighborhood.
199
710367
3086
11:53
It is a neighborhood that has the history of jazz at every corner.
200
713477
6561
12:00
Our neighborhood, in many ways, has been disinvested in.
201
720062
3917
12:04
Schools are struggling to really prepare our population
202
724373
5852
12:10
for the futures ahead of them.
203
730249
2277
12:12
I know that creativity is an essential asset.
204
732550
5296
12:18
It takes creativity
205
738577
3119
12:22
to be able to imagine a future
206
742942
3757
12:26
that is so different than the one that is before you.
207
746723
2808
12:30
And so every artist in our program has a high school studio assistant:
208
750053
6981
12:37
there's a high school student that comes from the city of New Haven
209
757058
3485
12:40
who works with them and learns their craft,
210
760567
3379
12:43
learns their practice.
211
763970
2207
12:46
And so we've seen the ways
212
766201
2042
12:48
in which pointing folks at the power of creativity
213
768267
5008
12:53
can change them.
214
773299
1445
12:55
Beauty is complicated,
215
775856
2894
12:59
because of how we define it.
216
779726
2148
13:03
I think that beauty and truth
217
783096
4919
13:08
are intertwined somehow.
218
788039
2917
13:11
There is something
219
791410
1420
13:14
beautiful
220
794834
1554
13:16
in truth-telling.
221
796412
1345
13:19
That is:
222
799560
1184
13:21
that as an act, truth-telling
223
801585
4026
13:25
and the myriad ways it manifests --
224
805635
4418
13:30
there's beauty in that.
225
810077
1676
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7