美国国家公共电台 NPR At Whitney Museum Biennial, 8 Artists Withdraw In Protest Of Link To Tear Gas Sales

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Not for the first time, a showcase of modern art has become a showcase of politics. Eight artists are protesting the Whitney Biennial¹ over a very wealthy donor² to the Whitney Museum of American Art. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE³: First let's meet one of the artists.

NICHOLAS GALANIN: My name is Nicholas Galanin. I'm a multidisciplinary artist.

ULABY: Galanin has two pieces in the show. One's a prayer rug woven to look like static on television. He's also one of the defectors. Last week, Galanin and other artists informed the Whitney they want out from the Biennial show, which opened in May. They were protesting how the vice⁴ chair of the museum's board got his money. Warren B. Kanders owns military supply companies that sell tear gas and bullets. The artists believe they've been used against migrants on the U.S. southern border and unarmed civilian⁵ protesters in Gaza.

GALANIN: Yeah. It was a really easy decision.

ULABY: Galanin says he knew about Kanders when he first agreed to be in the show, but...

GALANIN: As a Native American or indigenous⁶ artist, I think it's really important that we show up in some of these spaces.

ULABY: And also, apparently⁷, to disavow them. Galanin has been joined by a number of other artists who want their work removed from the show. Zachary Small writes for the arts news website Hyperallergic.

ZACHARY SMALL: We might just end up with a Biennial of empty rooms.

ULABY: Which would be a statement about who is funding culture, he says. That collective action might just be its own kind of art, says critic Blake Gopnik.

BLAKE GOPNIK: The artists who withdrew from the Biennial actually made the best work of art in the Biennial. This is an excellent work of political art.

ULABY: Other critics have pointed⁸ out these artists have benefited from the exposure and notoriety of yanking their work, and that they waited to do so until the show was almost over. The Biennial closes in September.

GOPNIK: But look, we're talking about these issues. It's raising our awareness⁹ of the contradictions involved and the subtleties¹⁰ and ambiguities¹¹, and that's what art is good at doing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ART MUSEUM AMBIENCE)

ULABY: That's what it did with a couple of friends who visited the Whitney Biennial yesterday. Rachel Weber (ph) and Coral Bourgeois¹² (ph) said you usually go to an art museum to be uplifted and inspired, not to think about how it may have been funded by tools of war.

RACHEL WEBER: This really...

CORAL BOURGEOIS: This is...

WEBER: ...Brought this...

BOURGEOIS: Yeah. Brought it home.

WEBER: Brought it home that this is what the Whitney is.

ULABY: In a statement, the Whitney's president said the museum is saddened by the artists' decision but supports their right to express themselves. None of the art has been taken down so far, and it's unclear what will happen with the artists' fees. Artist Nicholas Galanin told me he was paid $1,500 for his pieces in the show, but he said that did not even cover the costs of traveling from Alaska, where he lives, and putting himself up in New York for the opening. He says the Whitney did not cover those costs. He said he'll happily return his fee to the Whitney if the museum wants it in return for taking his work down. Neda Ulaby, NPR News, New York.

1 biennial   

adj.两年一次的

参考例句：

• The workers were strongly against the biennial election.工人们强烈反对两年一次的选举。
• His is a biennial,and one of the most useful pasture plants we have.这是两年生植物，也是我们最有用的牧草之一。

2 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

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 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

6 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

7 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

10 subtleties   

细微( subtlety的名词复数 )； 精细； 巧妙； 细微的差别等

参考例句：

• I think the translator missed some of the subtleties of the original. 我认为译者漏掉了原著中一些微妙之处。
• They are uneducated in the financial subtleties of credit transfer. 他们缺乏有关信用转让在金融方面微妙作用的知识。

11 ambiguities   

n.歧义( ambiguity的名词复数 )；意义不明确；模棱两可的意思；模棱两可的话

参考例句：

• His reply was full of ambiguities. 他的答复非常暧昧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Fortunately, no ambiguities hang about this word or about its opposite, indeterminism. 值得庆幸的是，关于这个词和它的反义词，非决定论都不存在多种解释。 来自哲学部分

12 bourgeois   

adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子

参考例句：

• He's accusing them of having a bourgeois and limited vision.他指责他们像中产阶级一样目光狭隘。
• The French Revolution was inspired by the bourgeois.法国革命受到中产阶级的鼓励。