Dread Scott: How art can shape America's conversation about freedom
斯科特: 艺术如何塑造美国关于自由的对话
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to propel history forward.
and tell you something:
big questions from that perspective.
but ideas matter tremendously.
most people think, "Oh, he's a painter."
很多人会想，“哦，他是个画家”。
我做的一些工作。
some of the kind of work I do.
Without America" is a painting,
video and performance art.
"Slave Rebellion Reenactment,"
“奴隶起义的重现”，
on the outskirts of New Orleans
the center of controversy
艺术作品成为了关于
of the American flag.
to Display a US Flag?"
audience participation.
that had text that read,
to Display a US Flag?"
could write responses to that question in,
进行回应的本子，
站在上面的旗帜。
that people had the option of standing on.
of images of South Korean students
"Yankee go home. Son of a bitch,"
“洋基回家。婊子养的。”
coming back from Vietnam.
覆盖着国旗的棺材。
in a lot of different languages.
参与了这场活动。
our flag as you all do,
崇拜我们的国旗，
trouble about this flag."
should be returned to his heritage,
in his artistic way."
everything oppressive in this system:
这个系统所有的压迫：
and all the oppressed around the world,
who was shot by a pig,
to 'make sure the nigger was dead.'
以“确保黑鬼已经死了。”
for this opportunity."
defend your stupid ass!
——美国海军海豹突击队。
very strong reactions about the flag then,
对国旗有强烈的反应，
in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.
一些退伍军人的示威游行。
hang them both high,"
were phoned in to my school.
the work "disgraceful,"
“这个艺术作品是“可耻的”，
when I and others defied that law,
在国会大厦的台阶上焚烧国旗时，
on the steps of the Capitol.
legal and political battle
that prevented the government
涉及宪法第一修正案的决定，
patriotism be mandatory.
爱国主义的强制性。
would make a difference.
八层楼的楼顶。
where the veterans were at that time.
for me to be there, to say the least.
to do that shoot,
it was also a situation
这个系统一切压迫的
as standing for everything oppressive
about US national symbols,
by scientific breakthroughs
might not have worked out so well.
照片可能效果不太好。
led to a wonderful,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dread Scott - Visual artistDread Scott makes revolutionary art to propel history forward.
Why you should listen
Dread Scott's work is exhibited across the US and internationally. In 1989, his art became the center of national controversy over its transgressive use of the American flag, while he was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. President G.H.W. Bush called his art "disgraceful," and the entire US Senate denounced and outlawed this work. Scott became part of a landmark Supreme Court case when he and others defied the new law by burning flags on the steps of the US Capitol. His studio is now based in Brooklyn.
Scott's work has been included in exhibitions at New York's MoMA PS1, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Gallery MOMO in Cape Town, South Africa. His performance work has been presented at BAM in Brooklyn and on the streets of Harlem, NY. His work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Brooklyn Museum, and it has been featured on the cover of Artforum magazine and the front page of NYTimes.com. Scott is a recipient of a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship and grants from the Creative Capital Foundation and the Open Society Institute. He works in a range of media, from performance and photography to screen-printing and video.
Scott plays with fire -- metaphorically and sometimes literally -- as when he burned $171 on Wall Street and encouraged those with money to add theirs to the pyre. His work asks viewers to look soberly at America's past and our present. Writing about a recent banner project, Angelica Rogers wrote in the New York Times: "...it was difficult to look away from the flag's blocky, capitalized type. 'A Man Was Lynched by Police Yesterday.' It shouted the words so matter-of-factly that I felt myself physically flinch."
Scott is currently working on Slave Rebellion Reenactment, a community engaged performance that will reenact the largest rebellion of enslaved people in American History.
Dread Scott | Speaker | TED.com