美国国家公共电台 NPR Memory Fuels Art And Activism In Mark Bradford's 'Tomorrow Is Another Day'

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The artist Mark Bradford grew up in Los Angeles. He was a MacArthur Fellow and a hairdresser. Last year, he represented the U.S. at the Venice Biennale. Now the Venice art is on view in Baltimore. Bradford's work and life are pretty unusual. By age 15, he was 6 foot, 8 inches tall. He's 56 years old now and still the same height. NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg went to the Baltimore Museum of Art to see Mark Bradford's creations.

SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE¹: My arm is getting so tired holding this...

MARK BRADFORD: I know. I'm sorry. I am...

STAMBERG: No, you do not have to squat².

BRADFORD: I'm tall.

STAMBERG: I'm tall, too, but this is new for me. I have to raise the microphone so high to get to you.

(LAUGHTER)

BRADFORD: No, I...

STAMBERG: He's a large man, makes huge paintings and has big ideas. BMA curator Katy Siegel is an enormous fan.

KATY SIEGEL: Mark Bradford is one of, if not the best, painter working today. That is a huge statement, but I stand behind it.

STAMBERG: He makes art we've not seen before.

Oh, this is what it looks like.

A big bulbous construction suspended from the ceiling covered with pieces of shiny colored paper soaked, bleached³, pockmarked with a pressure hose. As I walk around it, it takes up more and more space.

Almost touching⁴ the wall on my right side now.

BRADFORD: I wanted you to feel like as if the center of the room was no longer available.

STAMBERG: I did - uncomfortable. Mark Bradford was inspired by horrors he and we have known.

SIEGEL: The mold that you saw permeating⁵ New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or the skin disease that was one of the first signs of the AIDS crisis.

STAMBERG: Awful, but Bradford's work is beautiful, also menacing.

SIEGEL: He pushes you to the walls.

STAMBERG: And makes you think. Mark Bradford is one of three children his mother raised by herself. No father around. His childhood was happy, he says. The family is close. He does not like the view that kids who grow up without fathers are deprived.

BRADFORD: Who cares? You just need one person to love you.

STAMBERG: His loving mother owned a hair salon⁶ in South Central Los Angeles. Mark grew up there. Local women came in after work and sat under the dryers⁷ while they studied for degrees.

SIEGEL: Everything that goes on in the hair salon - intimacy⁸, gossip, stories told between women, struggles with power, labor⁹ - all of that is embedded¹⁰ in hair dye and endpapers.

STAMBERG: Endpapers used to straighten African-American hair or for perms. Bradford uses the small rectangles in some paintings. He covers large canvases with the painted papers held down with silvery staples¹¹.

SIEGEL: He used a nice and easy hair dye, very deep dark purply hair dye instead of paint.

STAMBERG: The works glow like satin ribbons. Bradford transforms the darkness and depth of black history into fine art. He brings social meaning and formal beauty together on canvas. The last piece in the Baltimore show is a video, 3 minutes and 17 seconds, no sound. You see the back of a man in baggy¹² yellow shorts, a white undershirt, sneakers, walking down a street in South Central. He's walking away.

Do you know this guy?

BRADFORD: I do. I know him. He's somebody who just walks on his way from the store to his house every day. And so I always just liked the way in which he owned the sidewalk.

STAMBERG: He struts¹³ down the streets swinging his arms wide. He's young and black and gay in a bad neighborhood.

SIEGEL: He is this fabulous¹⁴ brave figure who does not hide who he is.

STAMBERG: There will be catcalls, ridicule¹⁵ from passing cars. He keeps walking. Mark Bradford had that experience coming up. The memory fuels his art and his social activism. He works with foster kids in South Central and Baltimore - puts profits from his paintings into projects to help with education, earning money. Activist¹⁶, artist - Mark has lots of labels.

All right. Somewhere I read that you are a black, working-class, gay, abstract painter from Los Angeles. What in that lineup is the most important, or do they all have to go together?

BRADFORD: What's the most important to me is that I'm an artist. The rest of it is just - the rest of it is just who I am.

STAMBERG: At the Baltimore Museum of Art through early March, Mark Bradford's exhibit is called "Tomorrow Is Another Day." I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 squat   

v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的

参考例句：

• For this exercise you need to get into a squat.在这次练习中你需要蹲下来。
• He is a squat man.他是一个矮胖的男人。

3 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。

4 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

5 permeating   

弥漫( permeate的现在分词 )； 遍布； 渗入； 渗透

参考例句：

• His grace was more permeating because it found a readier medium. 他的风度因为有人赏识显得更加迷人。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Thoughts are a strangely permeating factor. 思想真是一种会蔓延的奇怪东西。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

6 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

7 dryers   

n.干燥机( dryer的名词复数 )；干燥器；干燥剂；干燥工

参考例句：

• Men also have hair dryers and, if they suffer from baldness, they use a growth stimulator, buy hairpieces, or have hair transplanted from the hirsute part of the scalp to the bare areas. 男士也有他们的吹风机，而且如果他们秃顶的话，还会用毛发生长剂、买假发，或者把头发从密集的地方移植到谢顶的地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dryers can be automated. 干燥机可以自动化作业。 来自辞典例句

8 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

11 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

12 baggy   

adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的

参考例句：

• My T-shirt went all baggy in the wash.我的T恤越洗越大了。
• Baggy pants are meant to be stylish,not offensive.松松垮垮的裤子意味着时髦，而不是无礼。

13 struts   

（框架的）支杆( strut的名词复数 )； 支柱； 趾高气扬的步态； （尤指跳舞或表演时）卖弄

参考例句：

• The struts are firmly braced. 那些支柱上得很牢靠。
• The Struts + EJB framework is described in part four. 三、介绍Struts+EJB框架的技术组成：Struts框架和EJB组件技术。

14 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

15 ridicule   

v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄

参考例句：

• You mustn't ridicule unfortunate people.你不该嘲笑不幸的人。
• Silly mistakes and queer clothes often arouse ridicule.荒谬的错误和古怪的服装常会引起人们的讪笑。

16 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。