ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dustin Yellin - Sculptor
Acclaimed for his monumental “sculptural paintings,” Dustin Yellin now nurtures voices in the art community with Pioneer Works, his mammoth Brooklyn art center.

Why you should listen

Dustin Yellin’s mesmerizing glass sculptures explode collage into three dimensional forms, and have won him accolades from all over the art world. From early works of layered resin, Yellin’s sculptures increased in size (and weight), culminating in the 12-ton, three-paneled The Triptych.

But Yellin’s most ambitious project may be Pioneer Works, a colossal, 27,000-square-foot artist’s complex and foundation in Red Hook, Brooklyn. With its residencies, workshops and on-site science lab, Pioneer Works cultivates cross-disciplinary experimentation regardless of profit potential.

More profile about the speaker
Dustin Yellin | Speaker | TED.com
TED@NYC

Dustin Yellin: A journey through the mind of an artist

Dustil Yellin: Unha viaxe a través da mente dun artista

Filmed:
2,167,163 views

Dustin Yellin crea fascinantes obras de arte que narran complexas historias inspiradas na mitoloxía. Como desenvolveu o seu estilo? Nesta engaiolante charla comparte con nós a viaxe dun artista --a partir dos 8 anos-- e o seu idiosincrático xeito de pensar e ver o mundo. Sigue o camiño que o dirixe ata o seu último e máis importante traballo (ou traballos).
- Sculptor
Acclaimed for his monumental “sculptural paintings,” Dustin Yellin now nurtures voices in the art community with Pioneer Works, his mammoth Brooklyn art center. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I was raised by lesbians in the mountains,
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Fun criado por lesbianas nas montañas
00:14
and I sort of came like a forest gnome
to New York City a while back.
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e cheguei como un gnomo do bosque
a Nova York xa hai tempo.
00:18
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
Coa cabeza feita un bo lío,
pero deixaremos iso para despois.
00:19
Really messed with my head,
but I'll get into that later.
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00:24
I'll start with when
I was eight years old.
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Comezarei con cando tiña oito anos.
00:27
I took a wood box,
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Collín unha caixa de madeira,
e enterrei un billete, un boli e un garfo
00:29
and I buried a dollar bill, a pen
and a fork inside this box in Colorado.
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nalgures en Colorado.
E pensei que algunha clase
de humanoides raros ou extraterrestres
00:35
And I thought some strange humanoids
or aliens in 500 years would find this box
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nuns 500 anos, atoparían esta caixa
00:40
and learn about the way
our species exchanged ideas,
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e aprenderían o xeito
en que as nosas especies trocan ideas.
Talvez como comemos espaguetes.
Eu que sei!
00:45
maybe how we ate our spaghetti.
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00:47
I really didn't know.
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De todos modos, ten a súa graza
00:49
Anyway, this is kind of funny,
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porque aquí estou, 30 anos despois,
e aínda estou a facer caixas.
00:50
because here I am, 30 years later,
and I'm still making boxes.
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00:56
Now, at some point I was in Hawaii --
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Así que, en certo momento estaba en Hawai
--gústame ir de excursión, facer
surf e esas cousas raras.
00:59
I like to hike and surf
and do all that weird stuff,
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01:01
and I was making a collage for my ma.
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Estaba facendo unha colaxe para a miña nai
e collín un dicionario, esfolleino,
01:04
And I took a dictionary
and I ripped it up,
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e fixen como unha cuadrícula
ó estilo Agnes Martin,
01:06
and I made it into a sort
of Agnes Martin grid,
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enzoufeina con resina e
unha abella quedou atrapada.
01:09
and I poured resin all over it
and a bee got stuck.
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01:11
Now, she's afraid of bees
and she's allergic to them,
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Mamá tenlle medo ás abellas, é alérxica,
así que boteille máis resina ó lenzo,
pensando que podería agachala ou algo.
01:14
so I poured more resin on the canvas,
thinking I could hide it or something.
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01:18
Instead, the opposite happened:
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En cambio, sucedeu o contrario.
01:20
It sort of created a magnification,
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Magnificouse dalgunha maneira,
01:22
like a magnifying glass,
on the dictionary text.
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como unha lente de aumento
sobre o dicionario.
01:25
So what did I do? I built more boxes.
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Entón que fixen? Construín máis caixas.
01:27
This time, I started putting
electronics, frogs,
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Esta vez, empecei a pór
aparellos electrónicos, ras,
01:31
strange bottles I'd find in the street --
anything I could find --
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botellas estrañas que atopaba na rúa,
calquera cousa que atopase;
porque atopei cousas toda a miña vida,
01:35
because I was always
finding things my whole life,
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e tratei de relacionalas e contar
as historias entre eses obxectos.
01:37
and trying to make relationships
and tell stories between these objects.
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Deste modo, comecei a debuxar
arredor destes obxectos,
01:41
So I started drawing around the objects,
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01:44
and I realized: Holy moly,
I can draw in space!
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e decateime de que: Manda carallo!
Podo debuxar no espazo!
01:47
I can make free-floating lines,
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Podo facer que os trazos
floten en liberdade,
01:49
like the way you would draw
around a dead body at a crime scene.
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igual que debuxar arredor
dun cadáver na escena do delito.
01:52
So I took the objects out,
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Así que saquei os obxectos
01:54
and I created my own taxonomy
of invented specimens.
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e creei a miña propia taxinomía
de espécimes inventados.
01:57
First, botanical --
which you can kind of get a sense of.
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Primeiro a botánica, da que
podedes facervos unha idea.
02:01
Then I made some
weird insects and creatures.
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Despois insectos raros e bichos.
Era moi divertido debuxar
nas capas de resina.
02:05
It was really fun; I was just
drawing on the layers of resin.
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02:08
And it was cool, because I was actually
starting to have shows and stuff,
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E foi marabilloso, porque empecei
coas exposicións e esas cousas.
Gañaba cartos, xa podía
levar a miña moza cear,
02:12
I was making some money,
I could take my girlfriend for dinner,
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e ir, por exemplo, ó Sizzler.
02:15
and like, go to Sizzler.
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Unha cousa caralluda, tíos.
02:16
It was some good shit, man.
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02:18
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
Chegado un punto,
intereseime pola forma humana.
02:19
At some point, I got up to the human form,
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Escultura de resina a tamaño real,
con debuxos humanos dentro das capas.
02:23
life-size resin sculptures
with drawings of humans inside the layers.
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Foi xenial, excepto por unha cousa:
02:28
This was great, except for one thing:
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02:30
I was going to die.
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Ía dereito á morte.
Non sabía que facer
porque a resina íame matar
02:32
I didn't know what to do,
because the resin was going to kill me.
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e deitábame tódalas noites pensando niso.
02:35
And I went to bed every night
thinking about it.
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02:37
So I tried using glass.
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Así que tratei de empregar vidro.
02:40
I started drawing on the layers of glass,
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Comecei a debuxar nas capas de vidro,
02:42
almost like if you drew on a window,
then you put another window,
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case como se debuxas nunha fiestra, e logo
pos outra fiestra, e outra fiestra...
02:45
and another window, and you had
all these windows together
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e tiña todas esas fiestras xuntas
formando una composición tridimensional.
02:48
that made a three-dimensional composition.
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E isto realmente funcionou
porque podía deixar de utilizar resina.
02:50
And this really worked,
because I could stop using the resin.
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Fixen isto durante anos,
02:53
So I did this for years,
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02:55
which culminated in a very large work,
which I call "The Triptych."
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o que culminou nunha grande obra
que chamei O tríptico.
O tríptico estaba inspirado en boa medida
03:00
"The Triptych" was largely inspired
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03:02
by Hieronymus Bosch's
"[The] Garden of Earthly Delights,"
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por O xardín das delicias
de Hieronymus Bosch.
03:05
which is a painting
in the [Museo del] Prado in Spain.
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Un cadro que está
no museo do Prado, en España.
03:07
Do you guys know this painting?
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Coñecédelo?
Si, eh? Está moi ben.
03:09
Good, it's a cool painting.
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Disque está adiantado ó seu tempo.
03:10
It's kind of ahead of its time, they say.
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Entón O tríptico.
Vou falarvos un pouco sobre esta peza:
03:12
So, "The Triptych."
I'll walk you through this piece.
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03:15
It weighs 24,000 pounds.
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Pesa 11.000 kilos.
Mide 5 metros e medio de longo.
03:18
It's 18 feet long.
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Ten dobre cara, o que veñen sendo
10 metros de composición.
03:20
It's double-sided,
so it's 36 feet of composition.
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03:23
It's kind of weird.
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É rariño.
Ben, esta é a fonte de sangue.
03:26
Well, that's the blood fountain.
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03:29
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
Á esquerda temos a Xesús máis as lagostas.
03:31
To the left, you have
Jesus and the locusts.
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Hai una cova
03:34
There's a cave
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onde todos estes seres con cabeza
de animal viaxan entre dous mundos.
03:35
where all these animal-headed creatures
travel between two worlds.
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Van dun mundo de representación
03:38
They go from the representational world,
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03:40
to this analog-mesh underworld,
where they're hiding.
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a este inframundo de rede analóxica,
onde se agochan.
03:43
This is where the animal-headed creatures
are by the lighthouse,
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Aquí están os seres
con cabeza de bicho xunto ó faro,
a piques de suicidarse en masa
botándose ó océano.
03:46
and they're all about to commit
mass suicide into the ocean.
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03:49
The ocean is made up
of thousands of elements.
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O océano está composto
por centos de elementos.
Este é un deus paxaro
atado a un acoirazado.
03:52
This is a bird god
tied up to a battleship.
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03:55
(Laughter)
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Billy Graham está no océano;
03:56
Billy Graham is in the ocean;
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03:57
the Horizon from the oil spill;
Waldo; Osama Bin Laden's shelter --
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o Horizon o buque do derramo petrolífero;
Waldo; o refuxio de Osama Bin Laden.
Unha chea de cousas raras
que podedes atopar
04:02
there's all kinds of weird stuff
that you can find
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buscando ben a fondo no océano.
04:04
if you look really hard, in the ocean.
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Esta é unha especie
de muller-bicho.
04:06
Anyway, this is a lady creature.
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Está saíndo do océano
e está a cuspir petróleo nunha man,
04:09
She's coming out of the ocean,
and she's spitting oil into one hand
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04:12
and she has clouds
coming out of her other hand.
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e ten nubes saíndolle da outra.
04:15
Her hands are like scales,
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A súas mans son coma balanzas
04:16
and she has the mythological reference
of the Earth and cosmos in balance.
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é un tipo de referencia mitolóxica
da Terra, o cosmos e o equilibro.
04:22
So that's one side of "The Triptych."
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Esta sería unha parte d'O Tríptico.
04:23
It's a little narrative thing.
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Un pouco unha narrativa.
04:25
That's her hand that she's spitting into.
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Esa é a man na que está a cuspir.
E entón, cando pasamos ó outro lado,
04:28
And then, when you go to the other side,
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ten unha trompa, coma un bico de paxaro,
04:30
she has like a trunk, like a bird's beak,
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e cospe nubes por esa trompa.
04:32
and she's spitting clouds
out of her trunk.
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04:34
Then she has an 18-foot-long serpent's
tail that connects "The Triptych."
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Tamén ten 5 metros e medio de cola
de serpe que conecta O tríptico.
Secasí, o seu rabo
préndese lume tralo volcán.
04:38
Anyway, her tail catches on fire
from the back of the volcano.
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04:41
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
Non sei por que pasou iso.
04:42
I don't know why that happened.
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(Risas)
04:44
(Laughter)
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04:46
That happens, you know.
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Estas cousas pasan, xa sabedes.
A súa cola termina
no globo ocular do cíclope
04:48
Her tail terminates
in a cycloptic eyeball,
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feito de tarxetas terroristas do ano 1986
04:51
made out of 1986 terrorist cards.
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Sabedes cales digo?
04:54
Have you guys seen those?
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Dos anos 80, eran como
os cromos de Panini dos terroristas.
04:55
They were made in the 1980's,
they're like baseball cards of terrorists.
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Moi adiantadas ó seu tempo.
04:59
Way ahead of their time.
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05:00
(Laughter)
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(Risas)
Todo o cal lévanos ao meu último proxecto.
05:02
That will bring you to my latest project.
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Atópome entre dous proxectos:
05:04
I'm in the middle of two projects:
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Un chámase Psicoxeografías.
05:06
One's called "Psychogeographies."
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É un proxecto de 6 anos,
para facer 100 destes humanos.
05:08
It's about a six-year project
to make 100 of these humans.
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Cada un é un arquivo da nosa cultura
05:11
Each one is an archive of our culture,
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a través dos nosos medios
e materiais esnaquizados,
05:13
through our ripped-up media and matter,
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05:15
whether it's encyclopedias
or dictionaries or magazines.
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tanto das nosas enciclopedias
como dicionarios ou revistas.
Pero cada un funciona
como un tipo de arquivo de forma humana
05:18
But each one acts as a sort of an archive
in the shape of a human,
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e viaxan en grupos de 20, 4 ou 12 á vez.
05:22
and they travel in groups
of 20, 4, or 12 at a time.
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Son como células: xúntanse, divídense.
05:25
They're like cells --
they come together, they divide.
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É case como camiñar a través delas,
está levándome anos.
05:28
And you kind of walk through them.
It's taking me years.
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05:31
Each one is basically
a 3,000-pound microscope slide
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Son básicamente 1300 kilos
de láminas microscópicas
05:35
with a human stuck inside.
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cun humano atrapado no interior.
05:38
This one has a little cave in his chest.
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Este ten unha pequena cova no peito.
Esta é a cabeza, aí temos o peito.
05:40
That's his head; there's the chest,
you can kind of see the beginning.
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Podemos entrever unha entrada
guiándonos corpo abaixo, vedes?
05:43
I'm going to go down the body for you:
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Hai unha fervenza saíndolle do peito
05:46
There's a waterfall
coming out of his chest,
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crubrindo o seu pene,
ou non-pene, ou o que sexa,
05:50
covering his penis -- or not-penis,
or whatever it is,
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05:52
a kind of androgynous thing.
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unha especie de cousa andróxina.
05:54
I'll take you quickly through these works,
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Fareivos un resumo destes traballos
porque non podo determe moito a explicalos
05:57
because I can't explain them for too long.
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Aí podemos distinguir as capas.
06:00
There are the layers,
you can kind of see it.
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06:03
That's a body getting split in half.
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Este é un corpo partido pola metade.
Este outro ten dúas cabezas
06:06
This one has two heads,
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06:07
and it's communicating
between the two heads.
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e estanse a comunicar entre elas.
Podedes ver as pílulas saíndo,
06:10
You can see the pills coming out,
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chegando a unha das cabezas
desde esta figura estraña.
06:12
going into one head
from this weird statue.
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06:14
There's a little forest scene
inside the chest cavity.
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Hai unha pequena escena forestal
dentro da cavidade torácica.
06:17
Can you see that?
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Podedes vela?
En fin, esta charla fala
sobre todas estas caixas,
06:18
Anyway, this talk's all about these boxes,
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06:20
like the boxes we're in.
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como as caixas nas que vivimos.
A caixa na que nos atopamos,
--o sistema solar é unha caixa.
06:22
This box we're in,
the solar system is a box.
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Isto lévame á miña última caixa.
06:25
This brings you to my latest box.
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06:28
It's a brick box.
It's called Pioneer Works.
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A caixa de ladrillo:
chámase Pioneer Works
06:30
(Cheers)
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(Ovacións)
Dentro desta caixa hai un físico,
06:32
Inside of this box is a physicist,
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un neurocientífico, un pintor, un músico,
06:36
a neuroscientist, a painter, a musician,
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06:39
a writer, a radio station,
a museum, a school,
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un escritor, unha emisora de radio,
un museo, unha escola,
unha unidade editorial que difunde
o contido que facemos ó resto do mundo,
06:45
a publishing arm to disseminate all
the content we make there into the world;
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06:50
a garden.
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un xardín.
06:52
We shake this box up,
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Nós axitamos esta caixa
06:53
and all these people kind of start
hitting each other like particles.
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e toda esa xente comeza a chocar
entre si, como partículas.
Eu creo que este é o xeito
en que cambiamos o mundo.
06:56
And I think that's the way
you change the world.
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06:59
You redefine your insides
and the box that you're living in.
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Cando redifinimos o que somos
e a caixa en que vivimos
07:03
And you come together to realize
that we're all in this together,
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para decatarnos
de que estamos todos aquí, xuntos,
de que esa ilusión de que somos diferentes
07:06
that this delusion of difference --
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07:08
this idea of countries, of borders,
of religion -- doesn't work.
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esa concepto de países, esa idea
de fronteiras, relixión... non funciona.
07:13
We're all really made up
of the same stuff, in the same box.
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Estamos feitos da mesma materia,
na mesma caixa.
E se non comezamos a intercambiala
de forma doce e amable,
07:18
And if we don't start
exchanging that stuff sweetly and nicely,
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todos ímos morrer axiña.
07:22
we're all going to die real soon.
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07:25
Thank you very much.
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Moitas grazas.
(Aplausos)
07:27
(Applause)
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Translated by Jennifer G
Reviewed by Xosé María Moreno

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dustin Yellin - Sculptor
Acclaimed for his monumental “sculptural paintings,” Dustin Yellin now nurtures voices in the art community with Pioneer Works, his mammoth Brooklyn art center.

Why you should listen

Dustin Yellin’s mesmerizing glass sculptures explode collage into three dimensional forms, and have won him accolades from all over the art world. From early works of layered resin, Yellin’s sculptures increased in size (and weight), culminating in the 12-ton, three-paneled The Triptych.

But Yellin’s most ambitious project may be Pioneer Works, a colossal, 27,000-square-foot artist’s complex and foundation in Red Hook, Brooklyn. With its residencies, workshops and on-site science lab, Pioneer Works cultivates cross-disciplinary experimentation regardless of profit potential.

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Dustin Yellin | Speaker | TED.com