有个朋友去参观纽约大都会博物馆,写来一段感想,与大家在此分享, 他感触到艺术之永恒,人生之短暂,朝花夕落,生命要多多珍惜。
I stayed in the Chinese Art Exhibit for the most part of my visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The permanence of art and the ephemeral of life are the hidden motif belying any ancient artifact. As I stood there looking at a ladle with a nicely carved dragon-head at the end of the long-handle, many questions popped up in my mind. But these questions are as unanswerable as questions about our own life. What did the housewife look like who once used that ladle? Where had she got it from? Was it a gift from a friend or an item purchased at a store in a market? What kind of soup had gone through the ladle? Who made the ladle? How long it took him and what tools did he use? What stories, happy or sad, might the user, the artisan and their family have had? What eventually happened to all of them?
One of their offspring may have already passed by that forever silent ladle, removed from its home site thousands of miles away and encased in a glass window by someone or a group of people who were so different from the house wife and the artisan, without knowing his ancestor once used or even created that beautiful ladle.
Those displayed artifacts, many of them decayed over time or damaged by people, are silent witnesses to the vicissitudes of life, disinterested audience of many imperial and commoners' drama. They survive the passage of time and many unthinkable which perished their owners and creators. They were made to watch how man hurried through his busy life, chasing the insignificant, to his final destination. And they are constant reminders that life is to be looked at with lingering love and appreciation, and to be touched upon and felt gently and slowly.
Outside the museum, many Chinese artists were selling prints and paintings on street stands. Hopefully, some day one of their works will be on display in the stony building behind them, along with those made by their ancestors thousands of years ago. Well, it may not matter, as long as those street artists are enjoying and relishing their life the same way the museum goers the artifacts there.
- posted on 09/02/2003
Beautiful paragraphs. 大英博物馆里的陈列也很全,从人类文明史的角度说。过去我很爱去看,后来不太常去了。在俺看来,历史留下的artifact与artefact似乎本身并没什么区别。与之关联的背景t故事才确实是说之不尽的。
日本馆里若有陈列,artifacts总是是琳琅满目,有些还跟新的似的。可看了就算知道了。故事介绍也都读了。觉着日本的历史文化基本上就在这些artifacts里面了。中国若有陈列,artifacts屈指可数,又老又丑。大概游客看了,觉着中国几千年的文明基本上是个空白,最多是朦沌。也难怪,要是挂一又老又破的八挂,解说词怎么写?最多两段话,观众看了跟没看一样,没映象。假设说道伏羲的名字,别人看了也自然跟没看一样。
古国的历史和文化都是无形的。四书五经上了架,西方同志们也只会留意到书的材料和结册方式,它们中无形的东西,道理,影响中国两千年,想讲也讲不清。
幸好现在没什么实用价值,真省了心了。展览办的有意思,编故事想来是难题。
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