Titus Kaphar: Can art amend history?
Tajtus Kafar (Titus Kaphar): Da li umetnost može da izmeni istoriju?
Titus Kaphar's artworks interact with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to the Natural History Museum?
u Prirodnjačkom muzeju?
is I take my kids to the museum.
je da vodim svoju decu u muzej.
to the Natural History Museum.
Sabian and Dabith.
Sabijan i Dabit.
entrance of the museum,
of Teddy Roosevelt out there.
Tedija Ruzvelta.
with one hand on the horse,
sa jednom rukom na konju,
but it kind of feels like it.
ali stiče se takav utisak.
is a Native American walking.
is an African-American walking.
hoda Afroamerikanac.
koji ima devet godina, kaže:
da bih pokušao da to objasnim,
to try to explain that,
I try to do with them anyways.
da radim sa njima.
would have never really asked.
nikada ne bih stvarno postavio.
of such an amazing institution."
to amend our public sculptures,
da popravimo naše javne skulpture,
when I was born.
kada sam se rodio.
with his own things
is because of a woman.
putem umetnosti je zbog jedne žene.
fantastic, beautiful, smart woman,
prelepa, pametna žena,
about your future."
"I'm thinking about my future now."
„Sad razmišljam o svojoj budućnosti.“
to the junior college
nasumično do više škole
to what I was registering to.
za šta se prijavljujem.
istorije umetnosti,
about art history.
o istoriji umetnosti.
kada sam počeo da pohađam ta predavanja.
when I went into that class.
and say, "Who's that?"
i upitao bi: „Ko je to?“
Očigledno je da je to Van Gog.
Clearly that is Van Gogh.
I wasn't a great student. OK?
da nisam bio sjajan učenik. Okej?
za mene bilo velika stvar,
that I was able to learn things visually
da umem da učim vizuelno
da saznam na drugi način,
this became my tactic
moja taktika da razumem sve ostalo.
Stvari su se dobro odvijale.
Things were going well.
ova predavanja istorije umetnosti.
these art history classes.
I will not forget, I will never forget.
istorije umetnosti neću nikada zaboraviti.
od onih opštih predavanja.
art history classes.
na neko od tih opštih predavanja,
survey art history classes,
the entire history of art
celokupnoj istoriji umetnosti
and Jackson Pollock
i Džeksonu Poloku
but they try anyway.
ali svakako pokušavaju.
was about a 14-page section
bila je oblast od oko 14 strana
of black people in painting
let's just put it that way.
hajde da tako kažemo.
the other classes that I had,
koja sam pohađao
to go over that particular chapter,
da pređemo baš to poglavlje,
to go through it."
hold on, professor, professor.
pričekajte, profesorka, profesorka.
important chapter to me.
zaista bitno poglavlje.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
da je ovo značajno.
that this is significant.
stvarno se izvinjavam.
Jer moramo da razgovaramo.“
because we need to talk."
out of her office.
da je nateram da nešto predaje.“
"I can't force her to teach anything."
if I wanted to understand this history,
ako hoću da razumem ovu istoriju,
of those folks who had to walk,
onih ljudi koji su morali da hodaju,
to have to figure that out myself.
and looking at images like this.
i posmatrajući ovakve slike.
some slight differences in the painting.
that I had been absorbing
koju sam upijao
that painting is a language.
in the composition here.
this gold necklace here.
ovu zlatnu ogrlicu ovde.
about the economic status
o ekonomskom statusu
of the compositional structure,
da imaju poprilično novca.
that they have quite a bit of money.
this other character here.
in research on these kinds of paintings,
pri istraživanju ovakvih slika,
in this painting --
than I can about this character here,
nego o ovom liku ovde,
just put inside of this paint
pomerite svoj pogled,
of sculptures at museums?
ovakvih skulptura u muzejima?
of these kinds of paintings
of themselves all the time?
you actually had to focus. Right?
morali da fokusirate, je l' tako?
a little to the right,
a ljudi u pozadini napred.
in the background would come out.
the struggles of our past
sa bitkama naše prošlosti,
and the advances of our present.
i napretke naše sadašnjosti.
and getting rid of stuff.
i otarasimo se nekih stvari.
da uradimo na isti način
do it in the same way
a law in the American Constitution,
u američkom ustavu,
but this is where we are right now."
understand a little bit
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Titus Kaphar - ArtistTitus Kaphar's artworks interact with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums.
Why you should listen
As Titus Kaphar says of his work: "I’ve always been fascinated by history: art history, American history, world history, individual history -- how history is written, recorded, distorted, exploited, reimagined and understood. In my work I explore the materiality of reconstructive history. I paint and I sculpt, often borrowing from the historical canon, and then alter the work in some way. I cut, crumple, shroud, shred, stitch, tar, twist, bind, erase, break, tear and turn the paintings and sculptures I create, reconfiguring them into works that nod to hidden narratives and begin to reveal unspoken truths about the nature of history."
Kaphar is founder/CEO of the NXTHVN, a multidisciplinary arts incubator that's being built to train professional artists and to further establish New Haven's growing creative community. His latest works are an investigation into the highest and lowest forms of recording history. From monuments to mug shots, this body of work exhibited at Jack Shainman gallery December-January 2017 seeks to collapse the line of American history to inhabit a fixed point in the present. Historical portraiture, mug shots, and YouTube stills challenge viewers to consider how we document the past, and what we have erased. Rather than explore guilt or innocence, Kaphar engages the narratives of individuals and how we as a society manage and define them over time. As a whole, this exhibition explores the power of rewritten histories to question the presumption of innocence and the mythology of the heroic.
Titus Kaphar | Speaker | TED.com