John: Painting, sculpture, art of any sort, you name it, I love it!
Feifei: What about installations, do you like those?
John: What?
Feifei: Installations.
John: What are they?
Feifei: 我来解释一下,一个装置艺术作品,art installation, 相对传统的艺术作品来说,就是一件不那么老套的艺术作品 less conventional. 它可能就是房间里的一个普通物品,它也可能是通过投影机在墙上显示出来的一个影像空间或者也就是画廊地板上的一堆砖块。
John: Ah, I know the thing you're talking about Feifei, art installations!
Well I'm John, with me is Feifei, and today we're On the Town, where the BBC has been at the Great Hall of the Queen's House in Greenwich at an art installation.
Feifei: The Great Hall is often used as a place for art. It's part of the Maritime Museum in south-east London.
John: But of course there are many places in London where you might find an art installation. At the Tate Modern, perhaps.
Feifei: 泰特现代美术馆,是在一个旧电厂的基础上改建而成的,它位于泰晤士河的南岸。 It's on the South Bank.
An art installation at the Hayward Gallery
John: You might see an art installation at the Hayward Gallery.
Feifei: 海沃德画廊。
John: But the BBC went to Greenwich to look at an installation by Esther Shalev-Gertz. She has created an exhibition of 24 computer-generated portraits.
Feifei: 24张由电脑制作的肖像,24 computer-generated portraits.
John: The pictures even speak!
Feifei: 画面居然可以说话,因为他们事先为画中的人录了音,BBC派记者和创作者 Esther 一同前往展览现场。
We can go here and look at the figure of the woman that lives in my street in Paris. And every time I walk by she sits and looks from the window on the ground floor and smiles. She's so historically French, you know?
Artist, Esther Shalev-Gertz
Feifei: 第一张画中的人物是她在巴黎的邻居,Esther 说她的邻居是非常典型的法国人 so historically French.
John: Yes, she has a typical French look to her, although I can't say what that really might be!
Feifei: So John, these portraits are all of just ordinary people.
John: Not so ordinary. The ceiling of the exhibition space at the Queen's House in Greenwich has pictures of 24 women representing painting, sculpture, music and architecture.
Feifei: 原来 Esther 从展厅屋顶上的绘画作品中获得创作灵感,以身边24个对她有影响的人为原形,创作出24个肖像。
John: But, can we say that these electronically-generated portraits are art. Is it sculpture?
It is really sculpture! Today we just sculpt on computer, we don't become dusty, we don't become full of glue, or earth or other material, but you still have the same problems, to create a figure, that you do in real life. So it was very interesting that I can do sculptures and they don't take a space really.
Artist, Esther Shalev-Gertz
Feifei: Esther 相信她电脑制作的人像就是雕塑作品,她说做这样的雕塑不至于弄得满身灰尘 you don't become dusty, 也不会全身沾满了胶水 full of glue!
John: Well, let's hear some of the recordings that accompany the portraits.
Feifei: 伴随人像的录音旁白来自在画廊工作的工作人员,其中有服务员 the attendants, 有清洁人员 the cleaners, 还有画廊的管理人 the museum curator. 我们来听一下录音,他们都谈到了在画廊的工作经历,以及身处这个展览空间的感受。
There've been some people they've been frightened of working in the house.
I think you feel a little bit eerie when you work here at the weekend when there's nobody else about.
They talk about the house as a person almost.
John: So the exhibition space itself has provoked quite a lot of reaction.
Feifei: 这就是装置艺术背后的创意,他们引发了人们诸多的反响 they provoke a lot of reaction from people. 但是在 Esther 的装置艺术中,他的人物肖像说出了他们对所处环境的看法,我们可以说她的展览具有多角度多层次的意味。It works on many levels!
John: So, when you're next in London be sure to find out where there's an installation on.
Feifei: It's quite an experience.
John: Bye for now.
Feifei: Bye!