Amanda Williams: Why I turned Chicago's abandoned homes into art
أماندا ويليامز: لماذا جعلت من بيوت شيكاغو المهجورة عملًا فنيًّا
Amanda Williams blurs the distinction between art and architecture through works that employ color as a way to draw attention to the political complexities of race, place and value in cities. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
with elusive-sounding names,
ذات الأصوات المُحيّرة،
I am black, thank you --
شكرًا لكم.
in a segregated city as I have,
that color and race can never be separate.
بأن اللون والعِرق لا يُفصلان البتة.
reminding you of your color.
is a socially constructed phenomenon,
ظاهرة من بناء المجتمع،
in our everyday existence.
culturally coded beauty.
ذي الرمز الثقافي.
with brightly painted storefronts
بواجهات المحلات زهية الطلاء
and beauty supply houses,
وصالونات التجميل،
learned the foundational principles
come to know is called color theory.
أنه يُدعى بنظرية الألوان.
by this term in college --
من هذا المصطلح في الكلية،
with their treatises
مع أطروحاتهم
color palettes and associated principles.
والمبادئ المتصلة بها.
to the art and science
في الفن وعلم استخدام اللون
compositions and spaces.
about the color red,
color of a cola can is red,
الرمزي لعبلة الكولا،
all of us can agree that it's red
of people in this room.
الموجودين في هذه الغرفة.
taught since kindergarten is primary --
مذ كنا في الروضة، بأنه لون أساسي،
as a relational context.
to determine which neighborhoods
لتحديد الأحياء
federal housing loans.
was its own kind of color palette,
than all of those color palettes
من ألواح الألوان تلك
in college combined.
who lived in neighborhoods like mine.
يعيشون في حيٍ كحيّي.
were literally coloring in these maps
حرفيًا، هذه الخرائط
in the foreclosure crisis.
في أزمة الرهن العقاري.
symbolized by these Xs
من خلال إشارات X
on the fronts of vacated houses
color palettes were determining
my own color palette
who live where I do
that color had been defined for us.
على هذا اللون.
have to search far for
emerges from this reality?
understanding of color
understanding of color.
was a two-year artistic project
مشروعًا فنيًا ذا عامين
to my own neighborhoods
79th Street right now
في هذه اللحظة،
of the slightly greener shade of cyan,
خضرةً بقليل من اللون السماوي،
is Ultra Sheen?" --
grandmother's bathroom ensue.
when you have Ultra Sheen?
بينما لدينا ألترا شين؟
بينما لدينا ألترا شين؟
that were similar to mine
more than the product itself.
من صدى المنتج ذاته.
"Harold's Chicken Shack."
as I could fit in my trunk,
تستطيع شاحنتي استيعابها،
in monochromatic fashion.
لهذه البيوت، على نحوٍ أحادي اللون.
in a way that I hadn't before.
to the biggest canvas I could imagine ...
على أكبر لوحة أستطيع تخيلها...
familiar streets that I'd grown up on,
في شوارع مألوفة نشأت بها،
with the city's data portal
مع بوابة بيانات المدينة،
tagged for demolition --
what it meant to just let color rule,
أن أترك اللون يسود،
different pictures about the South Side.
عن الجانب الجنوبي.
to their fully lined counterparts.
مع نظائرها المخططة بالكامل.
like Monopoly pieces
of that paint or until someone complained.
أو يشتكي أحدنا.
this image one day.
when he drove past
mysteriously change colors overnight,
يتغير لونه ليلًا بغموض،
a Crown Royal bag involved,
هي السبب بالتأكيد،
was almost all but erased,
تم مسح هذه البقعة بالكامل،
could pop up in unexpected places
فجأةً في مكانٍ غير متوقع
that the music industry and society
فيها صناعة الموسيقى
had become synonymous with royalty.
من إيغلستون مرادفًا للملكية.
had regained its value.
despite being strangers
absolutely nothing to do with Prince,
full ownership of this project
transformed the neighborhood
بأن هذا المشروع قد غيَر الحي
that we like to rely on:
reduced crime, no alcoholism --
وانعدام إدمان الكحول...
catalyzed new conversations
visible the uncomfortable questions
غير المريحة مرئية بلا لُبس،
have to ask themselves
والحكومات أن تسألها لذاتها،
of myself and my neighborhood counterparts
عن ذاتي وأقراني من الحي
to collective agency needs to be.
that didn't wait for permission
لا أنتظر فيها إذنًا من أحد،
and paint crew members said it best
وطاقم الطلي بطريقةٍ أفضل
change the neighborhood,
what's possible for their neighborhood,"
ما هو ممكن لحيَهم."
"Why are you painting that house
to come and tear it down?"
لم تكن لدي فكرة عن السبب وراء فعلي،
understand color as both a medium
بطريقة أفضل كوسيط
that I am identified in society.
of making the world better,
both of these ways that I'm understood,
كلا الطريقتين اللتين فهمتهما،
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Amanda Williams - Visual artistAmanda Williams blurs the distinction between art and architecture through works that employ color as a way to draw attention to the political complexities of race, place and value in cities.
Why you should listen
The landscapes in which Amanda Williams operates are the visual residue of the invisible policies and forces that have misshapen most inner cities. Her installations, paintings, video and works on paper seek to inspire new ways of looking at the familiar -- and raise questions about the state of urban space in America in the process.
Williams has exhibited widely, including the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, a solo exhibition at the MCA Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis. She is a 2018 United States Artists Fellow, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors grantee, an Efroymson Family Arts Fellow, a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow and a member of the multidisciplinary Museum Design team for the Obama Presidential Center. She is this year's Bill and Stephanie Sick Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of the Art Institute Chicago and has previously served as a visiting assistant professor of architecture at Cornell University and Washington University in St. Louis. She lives and works on Chicago's south side.
Amanda Williams | Speaker | TED.com