【國際公共藝術獎入選案例】鳥/The Birds

2011年公共藝術國際獎

藝術家：麥芳維·麥克勞德（加拿大）

地點：加拿大溫哥華

推薦人：紹娜·迪伊

The Birds

Artist: Myfanwy Macleod （Canada）

Location: Vancouver, Canada

Recommender: Shauna Dee

溫哥華藝術家麥芳維•麥克勞德為位於東南部福溪的溫哥華奧運村創作了《鳥》，該地區曾經是工業區，主要用作停車場。後來又來建造運動員居住的房屋，奧運村擁有56000平方米的住宿中心，裡面有600多間房間。整個基地按照低能量電子衍射（LEED）黃金和白金標準而設計。因此該奧運村被確認為世界上最環保的居住地。

《鳥》成型於這種對可持續發展的關注。這件作品的亮點是同時關注更輕微和更嚴重的方面：當一個外來物種被引入當地會造成什麼樣的影響，鳥類的美麗外表有時掩飾了它們對生物多樣性可能造成的危害。兩尊比實體更大的麻雀雕塑組成了《鳥》，鳥身上塗著小鳥的真實顏色，那個品種的鳥在1800年代從英格蘭引入到了北美洲。從那時起，麻雀變得非常普遍，它們把很多本地物種趕了出去。麥克勞德那兩尊巨型麻雀（一隻雄性，另一隻雌性）有18英尺高，當遊客走近時，相形之下就顯得渺小了。藝術家說把小型鳥類變得更大這個觀念，是為了強調一種信息：當一個外來物種被引入，它能夠嚴重地破壞該地區的生態系統，因此我們應該注意自然界的相互依存關係。

2010年奧運會之後，負責2010年奧運會和殘奧會（VANOC）的溫哥華組委會把這個基地移交給了溫哥華市。奧運村更名為「千年水」，並轉換成了住宅，一個社區中心，國小，託兒所和零售、服務的空間。「千年水」的海濱區域是福溪海堤長廊和腳踏車道的一部分，能夠清楚地看到科學世界和溫哥華市中心。但是這個開發計劃困難重重：

《加拿大藝術》（2011年春季刊）這樣評論道：

背景是一座混凝土廣場，周圍是昂貴公寓，能夠看到繁忙市中心的天際線和連綿隱現的山脈。兩座巨型鳥雕塑，一雄一雌，被建造成紀念碑式的塑像，卸掉了瓷器的外殼，降落在了溫哥華。《鳥》被安放於廣場的兩側，銅製爪子捲曲著，就像正要起飛，開始俯衝轟炸，或是從它們的板凳座上走下來，左右蹬腳。當廣場幾乎無人時，顯得很荒涼，你會有種異乎尋常的感覺，好像發生了奇怪或可怕的事，鳥兒們回家要棲息過夜了。場景雖然熱鬧，但預示了一種不確定的未來，它們隨時準備著發起攻擊。

麥克勞德通過《鳥》這個雕塑對我們提出了一個警告，讓我們對過去的傳說和做過蠢事以及對未來的看法進行反思。本來應該很平常的都市環境中的這一幽靈現場刺激我們把這一情緒體驗深深地烙進了記憶中。

《鳥》是這個時代和地點的荒謬的、令人詫異的、危險的、帶有威脅性的看守者。它們還是把我們引入童話般景觀中，把現實縮小的原型。像郊外的某一片曾經顯得如此巨大和恐怖的樹林，兒童也許重回那裡，發現它們比記憶中的小了很多。或者由於奧運村剛剛被接管，呈現出城市中的一座鬼鎮，裡面有空置的公寓和實體公園——理想的麥克勞德地形——他們或許會發現鳥全都飛走了，僅留下了主宰著它們生存的不可靠的記憶。

Vancouver artist Myfanwy MacLeod created TheBirds for Vancouver』s Olympic Village in Southeast False Creek, whichpreviously had been a former industrial area that was once mostly parking lots.When built to house athletes, Olympic Village was a 56,000m squaredaccommodation centre with over 600 units. The whole site was designed to followLEED Gold and Platinum standards. As a result, the Olympic Village wasrecognized as the World』s Greenest Neighborhood.

The Birds was shaped by this focus onsustainability. The work highlights both the lighter and graver sides of whatcan happen when a non-native species is introduced to an environment, how thebeauty of birds can sometimes mask their threat to biodiversity. Twolarger-than-life sparrow sculptures that make up The Birds are painted with thetrue colors of the small bird that was introduced to North America from Englandin the 1800s. Since then, sparrows have become so commonplace that they havedriven out many other native species. MacLeod』s two giant sparrows (one maleand one female) are 18 ft. tall and they dwarf visitors who come near them. Theartist said the idea of making the small bird bigger was to underline themessage that when a foreign species is introduced, it can adversely upset theeco-system of an area and thus we should pay attention to the interdependenceof nature.

After the 2010 Olympics, the VancouverOrganizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) turnedover the site to the City of Vancouver. The Village was then renamed 「MillenniumWater」 and was converted into residential housing, a community centre,elementary school, daycare centres, and retail and service spaces. TheMillennium Water』s waterfront area is part of the False Creek seawall promenadeand bike route, with a clear view of Science World and downtown Vancouver. Butthe development has struggled:

Quoted from Canadian Art, Spring 2011:

The backdrop is a concrete plaza surroundedby generic stacks of expensive condos with a view of the busy downtown skylineand the ever-looming mountains. The two massive birds, a male and a female, arefabricated to look like monumental figurines that have busted out of a chinacabinet and descended on Vancouver. The birds are positioned on opposite sidesof the square, bronze claws curled, as if poised to take flight and startdive-bombing, or to step down from their bench pedestals and stomp around. Whenthe square is unpopulated…and appears desolate, you get this uncanny feelingthat something bizarre or terrible has happened, that the birds have come hometo roost. When the scene is bustling, they』re harbingers of an uncertainfuture, keeping watch over their charges.

With The Birds, MacLeod has created a portentfor us to reflect on our past fables and follies and on our visions of thefuture. This spectral scene in an otherwise homogenous urban environmentincites us to fix the experience to memory. The Birds are preposterous,surprising, precarious and menacing keepers of this time and place. They』realso archetypes, drawing us into a fairy-tale landscape that dwarfs reality.And like the suburban patch of woods that once seemed so vast and spooky,children might return to find them so much smaller than they remembered. Or,given that the Olympic village just went into receivership, rendering the emptycondos and its concrete park a ghost town in the middle of the city—idealMacLeod terrain—they might find that the birds are gone altogether, leavingunreliable memory charged with their survival.

王爾德的《快樂王子》中，人們仰視「像風標一樣漂亮」的巨型王子雕像，小燕子依附於王子腳邊，快樂王子和小燕子在寒冷中互相陪伴，不斷消耗自身以救助他人。加拿大藝術家麥芳維·麥克勞德在其作品《鳥》中講述的卻是另一個故事。

兩尊麻雀雕像高18英尺，寓意外來物種引入對當地生態可能的威脅。更為深層次的，作品探討了人與自然界的相互依存關係，對於人類盲目的、錯誤的生態意識予以警示。但僅從外表而言，《鳥》並未給人以凌厲的指控感，相反，模擬的色彩和細膩的工藝，都讓市民更願意親近它，在它腳邊休息閑談，被烏托邦的超現實幻象所吸引。這是不是意味著公共藝術在承擔社會教化功能、履行公益職責的宏圖目標之前，首先還是要給予人溫暖的融入感和歸屬性，減少與當地社會及文化環境的違和感呢？

麻雀當然不是燕子，然而快樂王子也並不快樂。如果麥芳維·麥克勞德的《鳥》能讓人們快樂，那麼這件公共藝術作品已經成功了一大半。（吳昉）

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