今日から東京都美術館にて、世界絵画大賞展が開催されている。会期は2日から8日までで7日が授賞式がある。僕は今回初参加で準大賞である優秀賞をいただいた。会場に来て驚いたのは、実に挑戦的で質の高い絵画が多かったことだ。この展示作品は1058点から選ばれた150作品だ。
僕の作品名はBlack and White です。小部屋で白人の少女が隠れていて奥の居間には外から帰ってきた、家族である黒人の幼児が、黒人の豪邸に入ってきています。これは象徴的な場面です。小部屋にcolored only とあります。これはアメリカでは黒人を閉じ込めた黒人専用という黒人への差別の言葉ですね。
でも南アフリカは黒人国家になってから、少数派の白人は逆な、かつての黒人への差別のような、差別的待遇も現実に受けています。
僕は前は南アフリカに隔年で眼科手術を教えに行ってました。移動用に雇った車の運転手は大卒の白人でした。彼は南アフリカでは黒人優先なので白人は大学出でも運転手ぐらいしかなれないとため息だったのを思い出します。
全ての差別は相対的です。LGBTやBlack lives matter運動がありますが、時代やところが変わると、逆になるかもしれないのですよ。
このように理解できれば、あらゆる差別は虚しい誤解からくるのであり、全ての差別が理解することで、愛に変わると信じています。
そもそも、同情心つまりSympathyの語源は、ギリシャ語のsyn（一緒）とpathos（苦しむ）なのですが、仲間のように共に苦しみ、共に感じるという意味です。まさに相互に理解しあうことが、差別から解放されて、相互愛につながると思うのです。
そんな事を絵の中のメッセージに込めています。ぜひ本物の僕の絵を美術館の現地でご覧ください。
The World Painting Awards Exhibition is being held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum from today. The exhibition runs from the 2nd to the 8th, with the award ceremony on the 7th. This is the first time for me to participate in the exhibition, and I received the Excellence Award, which is the runner-up grand prize. When I arrived at the venue, I was surprised to see many challenging and high quality paintings. The 150 works in this exhibition were selected from 1,058 paintings.
The name of my work is “Black and White”. There is a white girl hiding in a small room and in the living room at the back of the house, a family member, a black toddler, has returned from outside and is entering a black mansion. This is a symbolic scene. The small room is COLORED ONLY. This is a term of discrimination against blacks in the United States, that it is for blacks only, with blacks locked in.
But since South Africa has become a black nation, whites, who are a minority, are also treated in a discriminatory way, just like the discrimination against blacks in the past.
I used to go to South Africa every other year to teach eye surgery. The driver of the car I hired to transport me was a white man with a college degree. I remember him sighing that in South Africa, blacks are given priority and whites can only be drivers even if they have a college degree.
All discrimination is relative, there is the LGBT and Black Lives Matter movement, but if times and places change, it could be the other way around.
If we can understand in this way, I believe that all discrimination comes from a vain misunderstanding, and that all discrimination can be turned into LOVE by understanding.
Sympathy comes from the Greek words syn (with) and pathos (to suffer), meaning to suffer and feel together as fellow human beings. I believe that mutual understanding leads to mutual love, free from discrimination.
I put such a message in my paintings. Please come and see my real paintings at the museum site.