美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Visionary, Not Reactionary': Artists Take Political Commentary To Streets And Skies

 

SHEREEN MARISOL MERAJI, HOST:

Artists reflecting on the current political climate are taking their ideas to the streets. For one national project, some artists are making billboards² about different social issues. NPR's Mandalit del Barco talked with some of them and also followed a well-known guerrilla street artist as he postered the streets of LA.

MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE³: After dark on Wednesday, I met up with Robbie Conal and two of his artist friends as they made a bit of political mischief⁴ on the west side streets of LA.

ROBBIE CONAL: There's a box right there. Let's do that.

DEL BARCO: In the parking lot of Wendy's donuts in Marina del Rey, they spot their first target - a traffic light switching box perfectly⁵ sized for one of his new posters.

CONAL: Goldie (ph), you looking?

DEL BARCO: Lindsay Socar (ph) and and Brian Loson (ph) take turns on the lookout⁶ for police and painting wallpaper adhesive⁷ onto the metal box. Then Conal glues on one of his new black-and-white caricatures.

CONAL: Rudy Ghouliani.

DEL BARCO: The portrait of Rudy Giuliani is stamped with the phrase, was it something I said? They move quickly from location to location, laughing and kibitzing about food while postering Conal's portraits of President Trump⁸ and his inner circle, what he calls the "Cabinet Of Horrors." They're display at the downtown gallery Track 16. There, he had more time to explain his grotesque⁹ caricatures.

CONAL: I paint them exactly the way these people look on the inside. This year, because of Trump and his Cabinet of horrors, I've done almost 40 paintings of them, which is more than I've ever done in any year in the last 20 years.

DEL BARCO: At 74, Conal considered the godfather of political poster art in this country. He began in the 1980s with a portrait of Ronald Reagan and the words contra diction. Since then, he's poked¹⁰ fun at political figures from both parties. Back on the streets, Conal and his friends joke about the reactions his images have inspired.

CONAL: Some people write things on them. Like, why is art so demoralizing?

BRIAN LOSON: Why is art ugly, to demoralize us?

LINDSAY SOCAR: People contribute and prove, or sometimes they want it, so they might try to take it. Or people get angry at it if they don't like it. I've seen a lot of the faces ripped off.

DEL BARCO: Conal and crews have been arrested for vandalism, but sometimes he says even the cops who stop them ask for posters. Around the country, other artists are expressing themselves through a public art project called the 50 State Initiative. It features more than 100 billboards that touch on a variety of social issues and topics from immigration, to guns, to climate change, to national health care. Artist Hank Willis Thomas cofounded For Freedoms, a nonpartisan initiative behind the billboards project.

HANK WILLIS THOMAS: We believe that it's important at times like these to be visionary, not reactionary¹¹, and try to open doors for new ways of conversation.

DEL BARCO: He says the artists were given free rein¹² how to express themselves. His two billboards that are up in Syracuse say, they are us and us is them. A billboard¹ in Anchorage is a photo of Earth shot from space with the words, we are the asteroid¹³. Another billboard in Clarksville, Tenn., depicts¹⁴ a creature that is half-elephant, half-donkey and the invitation, let's discuss. Artist Carrie Mae Weems created her billboard with a photo from a women's march with the words, vote and continue to dream. She's not telling viewers how to vote or how to dream, even if it might inspire someone to vote differently than she would.

CARRIE MAE WEEMS: That's the chance that you take, but every single gesture is a gesture towards hopefully having fuller dialogue and hopefully moving towards that greater democracy that we hope to realize in our lifetime. So you just keep participating. You keep going. And as a Curtis Mayfield would say, keep on pushing, keep on pushing.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KEEP ON PUSHING")

CURTIS MAYFIELD: (Singing) Keep on pushing.

DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.

1 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

2 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

7 adhesive   

n.粘合剂；adj.可粘着的，粘性的

参考例句：

• You'll need a strong adhesive to mend that chair. 你需要一种粘性很强的东西来修理那把椅子。
• Would you give me an adhesive stamp?请给我一枚带胶邮票好吗？

8 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

9 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

10 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 reactionary   

n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的

参考例句：

• They forced thousands of peasants into their reactionary armies.他们迫使成千上万的农民参加他们的反动军队。
• The reactionary ruling clique was torn by internal strife.反动统治集团内部勾心斗角，四分五裂。

12 rein   

n.疆绳，统治，支配；vt.以僵绳控制，统治

参考例句：

• The horse answered to the slightest pull on the rein.只要缰绳轻轻一拉,马就作出反应。
• He never drew rein for a moment till he reached the river.他一刻不停地一直跑到河边。

13 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

14 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。