2008年1月

　　我十分熱衷藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作，美術(shù)史及當(dāng)代藝術(shù)評(píng)論，他們?cè)谖业膶徝烙^和智慧的培養(yǎng)上起到了至關(guān)重要的作用。為了能夠更好的了解這個(gè)領(lǐng)域，我積攢了一些資金周游世界。我曾在巴西，哥倫比亞，西非，土耳其，日本和中國(guó)學(xué)習(xí)工作。在這些國(guó)家的經(jīng)歷給了我全身投入到美術(shù)史，藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作和評(píng)論中的機(jī)會(huì)。這個(gè)過(guò)程充滿智慧，令人興奮，我總是將他們帶回我的國(guó)家與我的學(xué)生分享。

　　我的追求不僅僅是藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作，更重要的是理解美術(shù)史，藝術(shù)評(píng)論，和社會(huì)的內(nèi)涵，所以我將哲學(xué)作為我創(chuàng)作的本質(zhì)部分，并義無(wú)反顧的投身其中。在授課過(guò)程中，我往往不采取布置項(xiàng)目作業(yè)，演講和閱讀的方式，而是通過(guò)討論和交換意見(jiàn)來(lái)激發(fā)學(xué)生的新思路。我的創(chuàng)作植根于加勒比文化，我鼓勵(lì)我的學(xué)生去思考第三世界國(guó)家的藝術(shù)家和評(píng)論家對(duì)國(guó)際當(dāng)代藝術(shù)和評(píng)論所做的貢獻(xiàn)。

　　這樣的探究使得我的學(xué)生和助手開始思考殖民地國(guó)家獨(dú)立之后的民族文化重建問(wèn)題。后殖民地時(shí)期的文化重建運(yùn)動(dòng)在上個(gè)世紀(jì)后半葉影響頗深。它不僅僅體現(xiàn)在年輕的國(guó)家，那些大國(guó)強(qiáng)國(guó)的藝術(shù)家們對(duì)種族和文化邊緣問(wèn)題的關(guān)注，以及在此過(guò)程中形成的強(qiáng)烈的藝術(shù)詞匯也是這一運(yùn)動(dòng)的重要組成。

　　我現(xiàn)在旅居中國(guó)，并且創(chuàng)作了兩組作品—“自行車之旅”和“金字塔與蛋—— O的旅程”。盡管雞蛋和自行車的形象在我之前的作品中已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)，但這兩組作品的靈感主要還是來(lái)自我在北京的生活經(jīng)歷。北京總是讓我想起我在牙買加的成長(zhǎng)歷程，在那里生活著很多中國(guó)同胞。我在牙買加時(shí)也有很多中國(guó)朋友，他們已經(jīng)融入了當(dāng)?shù)氐慕?jīng)濟(jì)，政治和文化環(huán)境。

　　所以，與中國(guó)人一起生活對(duì)我來(lái)講并不陌生。我還發(fā)現(xiàn)了兩個(gè)國(guó)家的另一個(gè)相似點(diǎn)。中國(guó)曾經(jīng)向世界關(guān)上了自己的國(guó)門，之后又重回世界舞臺(tái)，這個(gè)過(guò)程同牙買加在經(jīng)歷過(guò)痛苦的殖民地時(shí)期后又在文化藝術(shù)方面得到國(guó)際的認(rèn)可有幾分相似。事實(shí)上，在國(guó)際當(dāng)代藝術(shù)背景下，我們是并肩而行的。中國(guó)正在以驚人的速度建設(shè)自己，一個(gè)有著幾千年歷史的文明古國(guó)，正在向世界人民展現(xiàn)自己的新貌，沒(méi)有人不會(huì)被他所吸引。這個(gè)重建過(guò)程卻又充滿矛盾，一方面，對(duì)肯定了埃及的金字塔這樣的古老文明的重要性，另一方面又在建造新的摩天大廈。這樣悖論讓我想到要將金字塔和雞蛋并置。

　　當(dāng)我看到我和我的同胞的作品能夠在中國(guó)當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的萌芽階段占有一席之地時(shí)，我感到很興奮。巴西，柏林，倫敦和紐約是傳統(tǒng)意義上世界藝術(shù)的中心，我們難以擺脫這些國(guó)家對(duì)我們的影響和束縛。但是原來(lái)的“第三世界”國(guó)家正在向世界展示最優(yōu)秀的藝術(shù)作品，我們似乎正處在一個(gè)新的繁榮的前夕。純粹的浪漫主義，經(jīng)濟(jì)振興，和廣大人民的智慧使得殖民主義過(guò)后的黑人世界和新興的亞洲國(guó)家逐漸擺脫西方意識(shí)形態(tài)的束縛，創(chuàng)造21世紀(jì)藝術(shù)新秩序。我想中國(guó)在這一進(jìn)程中起著重要的作用。不論何時(shí)，我們都要大膽的抓住在藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作，評(píng)論及美術(shù)史中和新世紀(jì)帶給我們?cè)趪?guó)際社會(huì)中嶄露頭角的機(jī)會(huì)。

　　Bryan McFarlane

　　Artist Statement

　　January, 2008

　　The intersection of the practice of art making, art history and contemporary criticism is of great interest to me. For many years, this area has been at the center of my own aesthetic and intellectual growth. In an effort to better understand the issues and opportunities presented by my interest, I secured several grants that allowed me to travel extensively. I worked and studied in Brazil, Columbia, West Africa, Turkey, Japan, France and China. Each place offered opportunities for me to engage in discussions regarding art history, art production and criticism. The discourse was intellectually stimulating, and gave me insights that I could bring back and share through my classes. Because I seek not simply to create art, but to understand its implications for art history, criticism and society, I embrace philosophy as an intrinsic part of my practice. In my classes, for example, I strive to mix special projects, lectures, and assigned reading in ways that encourage discussion and exchanges that often provoke students to think in fresh ways. Drawing on my own roots in the Caribbean, I have urged students to weigh the contributions of artists and critics from that region and from throughout the “third world” to international contemporary art and criticism. Such explorations have introduced my students and associates to issues related to the formation of national cultural identities in a post colonial world. The project of post colonial cultural reconstruction is widely acknowledged to be among the most pressing issues of the last half century. Its impact is felt not just in young nations, but also in major capitols around the world where artists are struggling against racial and cultural marginalization, and in the process evolving new artistic vocabularies of great power.

　　My most recent travels have taken me to China, and led to the creation of two series of works entitled Bicyclical Journeys and Pyramids and Eggs—A circular Journey.

　　Both were principally inspired by my experiences living in Beijing, although I had already begun to use egg and bicycle motif earlier. Beijing in some ways recalled for me my formative years in Jamaica where large and long established Chinese communities are part of the fabric of the nation. I had numerous Chinese friends in Jamaica where their integration into the economic, political and cultural environment is foregone

　　So living amid the Chinese in China was not an altogether new experience for me. I also shared a second commonality. The dynamics at play as China emerges from a period of relative cultural isolation and asserts itself on the global stage, have a great deal in common with those of us who emerged from colonial experiences and have also had to struggle for cultural and artistic recognition. In a very real way, our experiences are parallel ones within the context of international contemporary art. And finally, as I looked around China, I was struck by the speed with which the country is rebuilding itself. It is impossible to not be amazed by how a civilization thousands of years old, is reinventing itself before your eyes. This rebuilding simultaneously leaps backward and forward, reaffirming fundamentals as ancient as the pyramids of Egypt while daring to build new towers that pierce the sky. This paradox suggested to me the juxtaposition of pyramids and eggs.

　　It was excited to see how my work and that of other colleagues from the Caribbean found a place in the emerging cultural awareness of China’s 1.3 billion people. With the inevitable waning dominance of older traditional centers of art such as Paris, Berlin, London and New York, we seem on the eve of a great new flourish that will bring to the fro the finest artists from what used to be the “third world.”

　　With fresh optimism, economic revitalization, and the genius of enormous populations to draw upon, the post colonial black world and the emerging Asian nations may yet establish a 21st century cultural world order that escapes the arrogance of the West and the ideological strait jacket that so long constricted aspects of Soviet era thinking about the arts. I think that the Chinese have a big role to play in such a future. In any case, we all need to think boldly about that the opportunities in art production, criticism and history as well as the realignments within the international community brought to us by the century that we have just entered.