The Timeless, Ancient Language of Art | Wangechi Mutu | TED

翻译人员: Skylar Cy 校对人员: suya f.

I believe art is an ancient language

我相信艺术是一个古老的语言

that we use to communicate with each other

我们通过它彼此交流，

into the future.

走向未来。

A year ago,

一年前，

I took a magnificent journey with a friend.

我和一个朋友踏上了一次壮丽的旅行。

We went to see some prehistoric art.

我们去看了一些史前艺术。

We went deep into the desert of Niger

我们深入尼日尔的沙漠

to look for art that had been created tens of thousands of years ago.

去寻找在几万年前的艺术。

The journey was filled with long conversations,

旅途充满了长谈，

Tuareg music

图阿雷格人的音乐，

and our whimsical shadow dances,

我们诙谐的影子舞，

and lots of laughter.

和许多欢笑。

As we drove deep into the Sahara,

当我们深入撒哈拉沙漠时，

we found delicate drawings scratched into the gray rock faces,

我们找到了雕刻在岩石面上精美的图画，

art made at a time when the Sahel was filled with people and their cattle,

他们被创造时，许多人 和家畜定居在萨赫勒，

full of lakes and forests and home to hippos and giraffes.

那里曾经到处是湖泊和森林， 是河马和长颈鹿的栖息地。

We saw engravings of characters made with intricate detailed patterns,

我们看到了动物的雕刻， 它们错综复杂的图案表明，

a sign that whoever had carved them knew one day they would be seen and admired.

雕刻家知道它们会被后人看到并欣赏。

These ancient voices from the past spoke of the wealth and the bounty that existed,

这些来自过去的古老声音述说了 曾经的财富和丰盛，

showing the importance of making, recording and representing ourselves.

展现了塑造，记录， 和表达自己的重要性。

Art is that ancient language

艺术是门古老的语言，

that we've been using for longer than written text.

我们使用文字之前

We've left messages for each other using art.

就使用艺术彼此传递信息了。

Messages that travel across the expanse of time and culture,

这些信息穿越时间，跨越文化，

reminding us where we come from.

提醒我们来自何处。

As long as I can remember, I've been making art

从我有记忆开始，我一直在创造艺术，

and I've always made art about women.

一直在创造和女人有关的艺术。

I've created figures with female bodies

我创造了有女性身体的人物，

that sometimes look like pregnant creatures

有时候看起来像是怀孕了，

or wounded and then repaired women.

有时候又像受伤后被修复的女人。

I’ve made hybrid humans and even fierce feminine machines.

我创造过混合人类， 甚至凶猛的女性机器。

All to show how the female body is a powerful sight

这些作品都表明，女性身体 是一种强有力的影像，

onto which culture expresses its feelings of worthiness,

可以表达某种文化对价值，

of desire or distaste,

对欲望或厌恶，

of divinity or decrepitude,

对神性或衰老，

of belonging or loss.

对归属或失丧的不同情感。

The images I make,

我创造的图像，

like the ones I saw carved on those ancient desert rocks,

和我在那些古老的沙漠 岩石上看到的图像一样，

are essentially the representation

本质上象征着

of the presence of the female in all of us.

我们每个人里面女性的存在。

Growing up in Nairobi in the 1970s,

我在1970年代的内罗毕长大，

Kenya had every appearance of a happy, wholesome, modernized country.

那时的肯尼亚看起来像是一个幸福的， 健康的，现代化的国家。

We had fought, reclaimed and celebrated our independence

我们反抗英国专制的统治，

from a tyrannical British rule.

从他们那里夺回了 我们的独立，并为此庆祝。

But there were and there still are old skeletons and colonial traumas

但直到今天，肯尼亚依然有

rattling in our closets.

殖民留下的精神创伤和旧骨架。

When I was ten years old, whilst our second president was in office,

我十岁时，我们第二任总统在任，

there was an attempted and failed coup.

肯尼亚发生了一次失败的政变。

The president behaved increasingly paranoid and authoritarian,

总统越来越多疑和专制，

and he placed restrictions on all types of freedoms of expression.

他严格限制了了任何类型的表达自由。

People began to disappear.

人们逐渐开始消失。

Journalists. Preachers. Artists. Teachers.

记者，传道人，艺术家，教师，

Even my relatives who are vocal about the government began to vanish.

甚至我那些批评政府 的亲戚，都开始消失。

Kenyan people were rendered invisible, small and silent.

这让肯尼亚人变得无形，弱小，无声。

And I wanted to get out.

我想离开那里。

And I did, through my mind,

我的确离开了，在精神层面，

by creating art and imagining places I could go

通过创造艺术，想象我可以去的地方，

where I could communicate freely and fearlessly.

在那里，我可以自由地，无畏地交流。

Within a few years' time, I found myself in New York

短短几年后，我到了纽约，

and though I immediately felt far and removed from my country,

虽然我立刻感觉到自己离家乡的距离，

my mind remained clear and determined

我的思想仍然清晰坚定，

because I'd carried inside of me the language of my ancestral home.

因为在我里面有我家乡的语言。

The cacophony of this big new city was disorienting at first.

大城市的嘈杂一开始让我不知所措。

It was unlike dusty green Nairobi.

这跟内罗毕可不一样。

But with time, I found my creative rhythm,

但我渐渐地找到了创造性的节奏，

gathering all manner of pictures and knickknacks,

收集了各样的图片和摆设，

some sentimental, others unfamiliar,

有一些有情感连接，有一些对我很陌生。

collecting discarded objects, old pictures, even letters.

我还收集了被丢弃的物品， 老照片，甚至信件。

I cut and assembled them,

我裁剪并组合它们，

and as I glued them together, I put myself together.

当我把它们粘在一起时， 也把自己组合起来了。

Slicing out pictures from magazines and books

我将在街上找到的杂志

found on the streets of the city,

和书籍里剪下图片

I transformed them into large paintings

组合成大的图画，

with figures that were disjointed but whole,

这些图案虽然脱节，但也完整，

distorted, but strangely beautiful.

虽然扭曲，但也有着异样的美。

I stuck these fragments into imaginary environments

我把这些碎片放入虚构的环境，

that seemed frightening and violent,

这些环境看起来又可怕又暴力，

but always alluring and otherworldly.

但永远有诱惑力，超脱世俗。

It was my way of creating order and grace,

这是我创造秩序和优雅的方式，

a way to remember who and where I'd come from.

用以纪念我是谁，从哪里来，

Mending and healing in order to triumph.

通过修复和治愈获得成就。

After harvesting so much paper

在收获这么多纸张，

and producing so, so many collages,

制作这么多拼贴画之后，

I felt it was time to step back and let go.

我觉得是时候放手了。

Time to purge and shred this excess paper

是时候清洗和粉碎这些过量的纸张，

and these materials that I'd collected for years.

以及我多年来收集的材料。

And I did.

于是我就这么做了，

Turning it all into a dark, thick paper clay,

把它们变成厚厚的，深色的纸浆，

which I used to create my first large sculpture,

用来做我第一个大型雕塑，

a reclining woman with open arms and her eyes facing forward,

一个躺着的女人， 双臂分开，双眼向前，

a figure who could see a new beginning on its way,

一个看得见新开始的人，

titled "She's Got the Whole World in Her."

雕塑称作 “她拥有整个世界”。

As I visited and returned from my childhood home,

我拜访了童年的家，

I came back with all types of rocks and branches,

从那里带回来了各式各样的石头和树枝，

pots and beads,

陶器和珠子。

and each shell, each bone, each feather I found,

每一个我找到的贝壳，骨头，羽毛，

I used in the work,

我都用在作品中，

weaving back that deep connection to my home soil.

找回我和家乡土壤的连接。

I sculpted these giant earth queens

我雕刻了这些巨大的地球女王，

and placed the small mementos inside of them,

在每一个雕塑里面放置了小纪念物，

archiving my memories and experiences with family and friends.

将我和家人朋友们的记忆归档。

Our bodies once carried all of our art.

我们的身体曾经携带着我们所有的艺术。

Our bodies are our oldest museums.

我们的身体是最古老的博物馆。

I made these sculptures to represent our fractured and remade histories

通过这些雕塑，我展现了 我们断裂并重建的历史，

and our connection to each other and our red mud.

以及我们和彼此，和土壤的连接。

Each of them a portrait of the resilience and the diversity of African women

每一个雕塑都展现了 非洲女人的韧性和多样性，

formed from these particles of mother continent,

她们由祖国大陆的颗粒组成，

shaped like old trees,

她们的形状像古树，

shaped like my sisters and my grandmothers,

像我的姐妹们，像我的祖母们，

like anthills and women friends,

像蚁冢，像女性朋友，

like the coral reef and the Great Rift Valley.

像珊瑚礁，像东非大裂谷。

Shaped like me.

像我。

I gave them large elaborate feet

我给了她们精致的大脚，

so they could stand steady, strong.

这样她们才能稳定的，强健的站立。

As I spent more time reconnecting with this home I'd come back to,

当我花更多时间和 我的家乡重新建立联系后，

I conjured up more supernatural characters,

我创造了更多超自然的人物，

this time in bronze.

这次使用青铜。

Like my smooth, shiny water woman,

其中一个是我那光滑的，锃亮的水女人，

a version of the mythical nguva of East African lore,

她是东非神话中的人鱼，

a creature with the power to delight us, to instruct or destroy us,

一个可以愉悦我们， 指示我们，毁灭我们的生物，

who speaks directly to sea creatures and the water itself.

她可以和海洋生物对话，和水对话。

I created another sea goddess

我创做的另外一个海洋女神

and named her "MamaRay,"

名为 “母鳐”，

with mystical shell eyes

她有神秘的贝壳眼睛，

that see into the past and know the future,

能看到过去及未来，

with wings so wide they could carry us across the ocean.

她宽大的鳍可以带我们跨越海洋。

And then next I created a great woman crocodile

接下来我做了一个女鳄，

with striped armor,

有着条纹铠甲，

like long words cut into her body

好像有长字刻入她的身体一般，

to remind us of our land, our land that remembers us.

让我们回想起我们的土地， 这片记得我们的土地。

In 2018, the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited me to their first commission ever

在2018年，大都会博物馆 邀请我参加他们第一次委员大会，

to create new sculptures that would sit in the building's facade,

去做一些新雕塑，放在建筑外立面

these niches that had remained empty for over a hundred years.

空了一百多年的壁龛里。

I created four seated deities.

我做了四个坐着的神灵。

All wearing golden crowns of light,

她们都戴着金色的王冠，

robed in rippling bronze garments made to reflect the sun.

穿着为反射阳光所设计的波纹状青铜衣。

The first with a bright disk over her mouth,

第一个雕塑嘴前放着明亮的圆盘，

the second with a golden mirror on her eyes,

第二个眼睛上放着金镜子，

the third with a radiant crown,

第三个戴着明亮的的冠冕，

and the fourth with a circular light beam on her forehead.

第四个头顶金光。

These works stood for tranquility,

这些作品代表安宁，

dignity, Africanity and the feminine divine.

尊严，非洲及女性的神圣。

A few months after they were placed in the niches,

在她们坐入壁龛数月后，

the entire world descended into a pandemic.

整个世界陷入了疫情。

And it's during this time, in this crisis,

这段时间里，这次危机中，

that the serene guardians continued shining expressions of hope and calm

这些安详的守护者们不断的发着光，

and healing for us all.

带给我们希望，平静，和医治。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

This journey I began by drawing and sculpting

通过描绘和塑造，我开始了这个旅程，

many different versions of women like myself

许多和我相似的不同版本的女性

is what allowed me to move forward.

带着我前进。

It's what gave me permission to re-examine my home and my family

这个旅程让我远距离的

and my country from a distance.

重新审视我的故乡，家庭，和国家。

It's making art that continues to remind me

艺术创作不断的提醒我

what freedom I was so desperately seeking.

我拼命寻找的自由到底是什么。

For me, for us,

提醒我，提醒我们，

for anyone who works for our rightful place in the future.

提醒任何在未来为 我们争取应得地位的人。

And even if we begin our journeys at first to escape,

就算我们为了逃避而启程，

the return path is always inside of us.

回归的路永远在我们里面。

If we want to exist in the homes we thought we never belonged,

若想活在我们认为自己不归属的家乡，

we have to create new powerful images for them.

我们需要为它们创造新的，强大的形象。

When I'm working, I know I'm using this ancient language

我在工作时，我知道 我在运用这个古老的语言，

and I know that I'm where this language was born.

也知道我在这个语言的发源地。

I know we have all been related for millions of years

我知道几百万年来，我们一直都有关系，

and that we need to take care of this one vessel

我知道我们需要照顾好这个载体，

that connects us to our roots,

它将我们与我们的根连接，

our roots in the Rift Valley,

我们在大裂谷的根

or the Sahara, or the shores of the Nile,

在撒哈拉的根，在尼罗河畔的根，

somewhere on African soil where we left traces of our first journeys.

我们最早在非洲土地上留下的根。

Art is that ancient language that we've always used

艺术是我们一直用来 提醒自己的古老语言，

to remind us where we're from and where we're heading.

告诉自己我们来自何处，去到何方。

I hope to always make art that empowers women,

我希望一直做赋予女性能力的艺术，

that points us to the future,

将我们指向未来的艺术，

to Africa, where art originated.

指向非洲，艺术的发源地。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（鼓掌）