上海七宝德怀特高级中学2位学子获《纽约时报》中学生评论写作竞赛冠亚军

祝贺七宝德怀特11F的胡译匀同学摘得纽约时报中学生评论写作竞赛桂冠，祝贺11C的王紫同学获得亚军！

纽约时报中学生社论竞赛（New York Times Student Review Contest）是《纽约时报》主办的一系列学生年度写作竞赛之一。今年，4000名来自世界各地的学生参加了此次竞赛，参赛者可针对任何类型的创意作品进行评论，如影视作品、演唱会、诗集、书籍、时装秀、艺术展等。最终，根据遣词造句的水平、观点视角的深度广度、评论的感染力角逐出9名冠军（winners），15名亚军（runners-up），及25名季军（honorable mention）。

无独有偶，两位获奖同学都是IB视觉艺术的学生，胡译匀的获奖社论是关于以火药爆破技术闻名的中国艺术家蔡国强在浦东美术馆的展览《远行与归来》，王紫则选择了德国具象派艺术家乔纳斯·博格特于上海龙美术馆展出的《绽放和谎言》进行评论。

获奖作品欣赏

Gunpowder: A Symbol of Violence or a Beautiful Ritual for Humankind?

Hu Yiyun

Explosions in art often represent fear and destructiveness; however, in Cai Guo-Qiang’s hands, they become the embodiment of mystery and beauty. In Guo-Qiang’s latest exhibition, “Odyssey and Homecoming,” which features hundreds of works that use gunpowder to recreate old masters of Western art, he shows us the shamanic power of gunpowder as an artistic medium that bridges nature and canvas in ancient and contemporary worlds.

In Guo-Qiang’s work, the ancient weapon is artistically transformed into a modern visual language. In “Painting Rubens’s Diana and Satyrs,” for example, Guo-Qiang uses speckled traces left by the explosion to create a psychedelic smoke fog over the forest, reproducing the intense atmosphere in a different way. Compared to oil paintings with classical and elegant styles, Guo-Qiang’s “Diana and Satyrs” uses randomness brought by the explosions to create graffiti and neon effects, which is more in line with the visual aesthetics of modern urbanites. Those traces of gunpowder explosions silently record the dialogue between old masters and the contemporary artist.

Traveling through time and space, Guo-Qiang first takes Chinese audiences on a journey through the Western classical period and contemporary art. Next, it’s time to go home. His virtual reality work, “Sleepwalking in the Forbidden City,” echoes “Homecoming” in the title of the exhibition. “It’s a daydream dedicated to the grand history of the Forbidden City,” Guo-Qiang said. He takes Shanghai audiences on a visit to a legacy thousands of miles away; he invited professional craftsmen to build a miniature version of the white marble palace and used V.R. technology to record the stunning fireworks above the palace. Cue the multicolored fireworks, and the Forbidden City, which has been sleeping for 600 years, gradually becomes filled with color and glows brilliantly again. The crackling sound of fireworks awakens the ancient relics of Guo-Qiang’s motherland.

Gunpowder is an ancient weapon that had been given the meaning of destruction and killing thousands of years ago. Now, Guo-Qiang has redefined it as a medium for connecting the past and the future. Using gunpowder as his language, Guo-Qiang speaks to the souls of the past masters; color is his vocabulary, texture is his syntax and fireworks are his voice. He is not restricted by identity, race or gender, nor does he make a specific group the target of his creations. Instead, he creates for all mankind as one human being. In an era when travel bans are still in effect, Guo-Qiang’s art takes audiences on a fantastic journey across time, place and Western art history.

“Blüht und Lügt”: Lost in Colors

Wang Zi

When people think of paradise, they tend to think of the charm of nature or a peaceful utopian world to escape from the reality. But behind each of these seemingly peaceful “paradises," there is also a darker side. German artist Jonas Burgert explores the idea of disorientation in his solo exhibition “Blüht und Lügt” (Blooms and Lies) at Shanghai’s Long Museum.

The spacious exhibition venue allows the visitors to immediately spot the larger-than-life paintings upon entrance, creating a strong visual impact on the first impression. When seen from afar, Burgert's works appear to be an indiscernible mess, featuring clustered shapes, blurry colors, and splotches of paint drizzled all over the canvas. Yet the gallery is clean, spacious, and bright; the plain grey walls neutralize the disturbing energy from the jumbled colors on canvas, while also softly reflecting daylight to lighten up Burgert's otherwise gloomy works.

Burgert plays with the idea of duality in his seemingly chaotic compositions. He packs oversized surfaces with figures in outlandish costumes, standing amongst obscure objects while staring blankly into the void. By blending muted hues with vivid colors, then placing emotionless figures surrounded with distorted shapes, Burgert blurs the borders between order and chaos, further challenging the viewer to contemplate the association between colors and emotions. The artist distracts the viewers’ attention on his portrayed subjects by using a lot of bright and saturated colors, such as lemon yellow, fluorescent green, and neon orange. The canvas becomes Burgert’s fantastical playground: In Glimpflinge, tormented human and inhuman creatures are portrayed as empty vessels, merely brought to life by the glowing colors. Scattered and struggling in blotches of colors dumped in piles, the figures in Viechlast are absorbed into a huge, shapeless dump. The bright colors that should supposedly lighten up the mood now form a disturbing contrast with the expressionless person seated amid the turmoil.

“Blüht und Lügt” digs into notions of classical portraiture and surrealist experimentation, featuring works interweaving confusing shapes with imperceptible emotions to create a carnivalesque visual feast. With depictions of inscrutable people posed against backdrops of grotesque scenes adorned in blooming colors, Burgert’s invented world captivates the viewers and invites them to lose themselves in the surreal world, calling for an inward awareness of one’s relationship with the ever-changing world.

国际学校网《上海七宝德怀特高级中学2位学子获《纽约时报》中学生评论写作竞赛冠亚军 》原文地址：https://guojixiao.com/z/16475.html