VOA慢速英语 2007 1219b

VOICE ONE:

I’m Bob Doughty¹.

VOICE TWO: 
Choe U-Ram’s mechanical flower

And I’m Pat Bodnar with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we travel to the warm and sunny city of Miami, Florida to visit the largest modern art show in the United States. For the past six years, art galleries, dealers², and artists from all over the world have gathered for Art Basel Miami Beach. Many other smaller art fairs also take place around the city. For five days in December, these fairs in Miami become an important center of the art industry and market.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Art Basel Miami Beach is linked to Art Basel, a famous art show that has been taking place for over thirty-eight years in Switzerland.

The Miami version of the show was held this year in the Miami Convention Center from December fifth to the ninth. Forty-three thousand people visited the fair, which included art from two hundred galleries in thirty countries.  Walking through the fair is an exciting experience in which you are completely surrounded by art. You might feel like you are in a museum, but the artwork around you is all for sale. On the walls of the many gallery exhibition spaces, you could find works by some of the most famous artists in the world such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. There were also works by many important living artists such as Barbara Kruger, Anish Kapoor, and Damien Hirst.

VOICE TWO:

Modern art can take surprising forms. You are as likely to find videos, machines, or light bulbs as you are to find paintings and photographs. One unusual sculpture combined ice and sound.

(SOUND)

This sculpture is by American artist Kelly Nipper. Pieces of ice hanging from a metal form fell onto a surface similar to a drum instrument. The falling drops made a sound, which was then repeated much more loudly by a speaker device.

VOICE ONE:

 
Xu Zhen’s supermarket work of art
You might even find a few pieces that do not at first seem like a work of art. For example, the artist Xu Zhen made an installation piece that looks like a modern food shop in China. The artist recreated boxes and bottles of common foods and drinks. He included lights and shelves for storage. There was even a woman operating the cash register where visitors could try to pay for goods. But all of the containers were empty. So the store became pointless. Xu Zhen makes an interesting statement about modern society and the culture of buying and using, or consuming, goods.

VOICE TWO:

Art that comments on the culture of consumption serves as a reminder³ that Art Basel is, after all, about business. Millions of dollars of art are bought and sold at this event. Many companies pay large amounts of money to help support the show and its many events and parties. For some collectors, buying art is more about making an investment than about having something nice to hang on the wall.

VOICE ONE:

The art market can be very competitive. Some collectors decide to “flip‿art by purchasing art from a gallery at a good price. As the artist’s work becomes more popular, its price increases because there is higher demand than supply. Several years later, a collector can sell the same piece of art at an auction⁴ house where buyers compete to purchase the piece.  The collector can then make a great deal of money. To fight this problem, art galleries can require buyers to sign an agreement that if they resell the art, they must first make an offer to sell it back to the art gallery.

Some art collectors like the fact that they can get higher prices for their works in the competitive sales environment of an auction house. But for artists, higher prices mean their work is less likely to be bought by museums. And some artists would rather see their works enjoyed by collectors rather than treated like a traded object.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Art Basel may be the place to buy some of the most costly⁵ and famous art. But more than twenty other art fairs also take place in Miami at the same time.

One of them is called Pulse Miami, now in its third year. This contemporary art show included works from eighty galleries in sixteen countries. The show takes place in the Wynwood area of Miami, which is filled with industrial buildings and warehouses⁸. Helen Allen helped create Pulse. She says that in such a competitive area as the art world, Pulse helps support new and inventive art and programs that are separate from the Art Basel show.

VOICE ONE:

One striking artist at Pulse is represented by the Pavel Zoubek Gallery in New York City.  Mark Wagner makes extraordinarily⁹ detailed¹⁰ collage¹¹ works.  He cuts pieces of paper and sticks them with glue to a paper surface to create pictures. But the kind of paper he uses might surprise you.

MARK WAGNER:

"Hello, I’m Mark Wagner. I’m an artist based out of Brooklyn and I make artwork that’s 
A collage by Mark Wagner
made entirely¹² out of the U.S. one dollar bill. I was making a lot of collage and realized that a lot of people were drawn¹³ to things that were familiar to them, so eventually ended up on  what’s the most familiar piece of paper in America, and it’s the one-dollar bill. Everyone has it in their hands all the time. And, I wanted to take that thing that everyone was familiar with and make something very unfamiliar¹⁴ out of it."

Since the American President George Washington is on the dollar bill, many of Mark Wagner’s works show Washington doing different activities. In one work, he is cutting a cherry-tree while in another piece he is rowing a boat in a sea of dollar bills.

VOICE TWO:

Another gallery at Pulse called bitforms showed artists who make moving sculptures. One work by Choe U-Ram looked like a large metal flower that opened and closed. The work was as artistically¹⁵ interesting as it was mechanically perfect.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The NADA art fair is organized by the New Art Dealers Alliance.  Galleries from Europe, Mexico, Japan and other countries come together in a building called the Ice Palace to show their art. For example, Rodeo Gallery from Istanbul showed the work of the Turkish artist Ahmet Öğüt. Özge Ersoy works with this gallery. She explained that this artist's twenty-three drawings show different important artists, museum directors and art historians. With these works and others, he explores the power structures that exist within the art world.

VOICE TWO:

One gallery from New York City had a moving sculpture called “The Message‿by David Ellis and Roberto Lange. You could hear the work before you could actually see it.

(SOUND)

“The Message‿consists of a processor that controls a typewriter and a box of bottles and paint cans. The typewriter writes out the words of a song onto paper while a drum instrument hits glass and metal objects to create a beat. Listen as one of the artists explains more.

ROBERTO LANGE:

“My name is Roberto Lange. The piece is called “The Message‿and it is based on the Grandmaster Flash song “The Message.‿So, it types out the lyrics¹⁶ and keeps the lyrics in tempo⁶ of the beat. The piece was made by David Ellis and myself. David Ellis he put the whole sculpture together and did the whole concept and I did the musical composition aspect of it.‿/P>

VOICE ONE:

Other shows took place in more unusual settings. Fountain, a show with galleries from Brooklyn, New York, was held in a warehouse⁷. If you were tired of seeing art inside, you could walk outside Fountain and see well-known graffiti artists creating spray-painted pictures on the walls. The galleries Aqua and Flow held their shows in hotels. And another group of galleries showed their collections on a boat called the SeaFair. This seventy meter long yacht was specially¹⁷ built to be an exhibition space. If you got tired -- or seasick¹⁸ -- from looking at art, you could rest at one of the restaurants on the boat.

VOICE TWO:

Philae Knight¹⁹ works for the New York art sellers Phillips de Pury and Company. She says that smaller art shows like Pulse and NADA allow experienced art collectors the satisfaction of discovering the work of artists who are not yet well known. And, she says that the shows are also great for beginning art collectors to find work they love at good prices. 

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE: 
Jona Cerwinske making art in the swimming pool of the Delano Hotel

Visiting Art Basel and the other shows was about more than just the art. It was also a good excuse for a party. Every day there were many social gatherings²⁰ and concerts throughout the city. For example, the American rock musician Iggy Pop gave a concert one night on the beach. Another night, Busta Rhymes and Moby performed. And visitors could watch the artist Jona Cerwinske paint a picture in the swimming pool of the Delano Hotel.

VOICE TWO:

Art Basel and its satellite shows gave visitors an exciting chance to explore and discover every imaginable kind of art. Visitors got to experience the inventiveness, energy and creativity of art today.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange.  I’m ­­­­Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Pat Bodnar. To learn more about Art Basel and see photographs of its galleries and visitors, you can visit w-w-w dot art basel dot com.  To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.  Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. 

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

3 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

4 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 tempo   

n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度

参考例句：

• The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
• They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。

7 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

8 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

9 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

10 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

11 collage   

n.拼贴画；v.拼贴；把……创作成拼贴画

参考例句：

• A collage of coloured paper covers a table top.一副彩纸拼贴画盖在桌面上。
• He has used a mixture of mosaic,collage and felt-tip pen.他混合使用了马赛克、拼贴画和毡头笔。

12 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

13 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

14 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

15 artistically   

adv.艺术性地

参考例句：

• The book is beautifully printed and artistically bound. 这本书印刷精美，装帧高雅。
• The room is artistically decorated. 房间布置得很美观。

16 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

17 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

18 seasick   

adj.晕船的

参考例句：

• When I get seasick,I throw up my food.我一晕船就呕吐。
• He got seasick during the voyage.在航行中他晕船。

19 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

20 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。