Left, Untitled, 1990, burnished and carobnised terracotta, by Magdalene Odundo. Right, the ceramic artist in her Surrey studio. Photography: Sophie Green

Artist Magdalene Odundo is standing in her studio in Surrey, alongside architect Farshid Moussavi and Hepworth Wakefield chief curator Andrew Bonacina. In front of them lie images of Henry Moore sculptures, alabaster jars from Ancient Egypt, a 19th-century Ghanaian ritual doll and a Cycladic figure dating back to 2700 BC. The trio are discussing how these wide-ranging historical, cultural and technical references have influenced Odundo and, more pressingly, how to process this ahead of the biggest ever display of her work. On 16 February, ‘The Journey of Things’ will open at Hepworth Wakefield, pitching over 50 of Odundo’s sculptures alongside a panoply of contextual items from art, archaeology and fashion. The show aims to shed light on Odundo’s unique practice. It’s a retrospective in name, but in reality is a much broader take on numerous histories of art.

艺术家MagdaleneOdundo站在萨里的工作室，与建筑师FarshidMoussavi和HeepworthWakefield首席馆长AndrewBonacina一起。在他们面前，有亨利摩尔雕塑、古埃及的雪花石膏、19世纪的加纳仪式玩偶和一个可追溯到公元前2700年的甜蜜的人物。三重奏正在讨论这些广泛的历史、文化和技术参考如何影响ODUndo，而且更多的是，如何在最大程度地展示她的作品之前如何处理这个问题。2月16日，“事情的旅程”将在赫沃思韦克菲尔德开放，在艺术、考古学和时尚的背景项目旁，将50多颗ODUndo的雕塑投掷在一起。这个展览的目的是为了散发ODUndo独特的做法。这是个回顾性的名称，但实际上，对许多艺术的历史来说，这是一个更广泛的选择。

‘Space and place have always been very interesting to me,’ explains Odundo. Born in Kenya in 1950, she first moved to the UK aged 21 to attend the Cambridge School of Art, where she began to specialise in ceramic. A wanderlust and thirst for creative inspiration and technical knowledge saw the young Odundo travel to Nigeria, New Mexico and China, where in each case she absorbed elements of vernacular craftsmanship, which all fed into her visual language and found new form in her large-scale vessels. ‘I am a product of travel, and when you travel you gather a lot of information,’ she reflects.

“空间和地方对我来说一直都很有趣，”奥敦多解释道。1950年出生于肯尼亚，21岁的她第一次移居英国，就读于剑桥艺术学院，在那里她开始专攻陶瓷。这位年轻的奥登多人渴望获得创造性的灵感和技术知识，在这些地方，她都吸收了当地手工艺的元素，这些元素都融入了她的视觉语言，并在她的大型容器中找到了新的形式。“我是旅游的产物，当你旅行时，你会收集很多信息，”她回忆道。

Research for the show, which will include Odundo’s inpirations, from an Elizabethan ruff to Edgar Degas’ dancers. Photography: Sophie Green

该节目的研究将包括奥登多的灵感，从伊丽莎白时代的皮毛到埃德加·德加的舞者。摄影：苏菲·格林

The exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield aims to lay these influences bare. It follows the museum’s 2017 exhibition, ‘Disobedient Bodies’ (W*216), which saw Jonathan Anderson display fashion alongside pieces by Jean Arp, Sarah Lucas and Lynn Chadwick. ‘As a new museum with a collection, we have the opportunity to tell new stories. We can experiment more and tell alternative histories with it,’ says Bonacina. With this in mind, featuring the work and influences of Odundo made perfect sense. ‘With Magdalene, I feel that the references are overwhelmingly important as they are so trans-historical and global in their reach,’ continues Bonacina. ‘To be able to look at that development over almost 40 years felt like such an opportunity.’

在赫普沃思韦克菲尔德的展览旨在揭露这些影响。该馆在2017年的展览“不听话的身体”(W*216)之后展出了乔纳森·安德森(Jonathan Anderson)的时装作品，其中包括让·阿普(Jean Arp)、莎拉·卢卡斯(Sarah Lucas)和林恩·查作为一个拥有藏品的新博物馆，我们有机会讲述新的故事。我们可以做更多的实验，用它来讲述不同的历史，“Bonacina说。考虑到这一点，以奥敦多的作品和影响为特色是非常有意义的。“关于Magdalene，我觉得这些参考资料是极其重要的，因为它们具有跨历史和全球性的影响，”Bonacina继续说道。他说，在近40年的时间里，能够看到这一事态发展，感觉就像是一个机会。

‘I am a product of travel, and when you travel you gather a lot of information.’

“我是旅游的产物，当你旅行时，你会收集很多信息。”

Putting together the show has taken much research, with Bonacina poring over almost every lecture Odundo has given (she has taught at Loughborough University and London’s Goldsmiths, is chancellor and professor at the University of the Creative Arts in Farnham, and has lectured elsewhere in Europe and in the US) and reading every text to create a long list of objects that have influenced her work. These span from a 1900 BC Cypriot cup once owned by Barbara Hepworth and Edgar Degas’ ballerina drawings to, perhaps less obviously, an Elizabethan ruff. ‘That came up when I was working at the Commonwealth Institute and I took the kids to a museum,’ recalls Odundo. ‘They were trying on the clothes and I realised how much of ceramics was based on the human form.’

把这个展览整理在一起进行了大量的研究，波纳西纳仔细研究了奥敦多所做的几乎每一次演讲(她曾在拉夫堡大学和伦敦金匠学院任教，是法恩汉姆创造性艺术大学(University Of The CreativeArts)的校长和教授，并在欧洲和美国的其他地方讲课)，并阅读每一篇课文，列出影响她作品的一长串东西。从公元前1900年塞人杯的芭芭拉赫沃斯和埃德加芭蕾舞画，也许不那么明显，伊丽莎白的皮毛。“这是我在英联邦研究所工作时想到的，我带孩子们去博物馆，”奥敦多回忆道。“他们在试穿这些衣服，我意识到有多少陶瓷是根据人体形状制作的。”

‘We’re telling a personal story and a very subjective history here. It’s not an academic history of ceramics or even of global object-making,’ says Bonacina. Instead, visual and applied art are used as props to tell the biography of one woman. As an example, Bonacina mentions a sculpture called Bird Swallowing a Fish by French artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska that Odundo first saw when she moved to the UK. ‘Magdalene thought it was by an African artist,’ he says. ‘She was moving in the opposite direction to most modernist artists who were looking to Africa. She was an African artist coming to Europe and then looking back to Africa.’

我们在这里讲的是一个个人故事和一个非常主观的历史。这不是陶瓷的学术史，甚至也不是全球造物史，“Bonacina说。相反，视觉和应用艺术被用作道具来讲述一个女人的传记。作为一个例子，Bonacina提到了一座名为“鸟吞鱼”的雕塑，它是由法国艺术家HenriGadeer-Brzeska在她搬到英国时第一次看到的。他说，Magdalene认为是由一位非洲艺术家创作的。她正向相反的方向移动，而大多数的现代主义艺术家都在寻找非洲。她是一位非洲艺术家，来到欧洲，然后回首非洲。

Ceramic artist Magdalene Odundo’s limited edition cover for the March 2019 issue of Wallpaper* features a new asymmetric Betu series work, 2016-2018. Courtesy of the artist and Anthony Slayter-Ralph. Photography: Marvin Leuvrey

陶瓷艺术家MagdaleneOldundo《壁纸*2019年3月版》的有限版封面*功能于2016-2018年推出了一种新的不对称Betu系列作品。艺术家和安东尼·斯莱特-拉尔夫的礼遇。摄影：MarvinLeuvey

‘It must be such a dream to have someone like Andrew take this broad view of your work and put it into context,’ says Moussavi, who was brought on board to design the show. Working alongside Odundo and Bonacina, Moussavi and her team first played around with the idea of displaying things based on technique or scale, before deciding to create a less dogmatic ‘terrain’ running through the gallery space. ‘It’s truer to Magdalene’s journey,’ says Moussavi. Works are grouped together to create inspirational ‘backdrops’, ‘but there are always overlaps’, explains Moussavi, who wanted to show the borderless nature of Odundo’s portfolio. ‘This is an example of how we can learn from each other; travel and looking at pieces and people other than ourselves can be hugely inspiring.’

穆萨维(Moussavi)说，让像安德鲁这样的人对你的作品有这么广泛的看法，并把它放在背景中，这一定是一个梦想。穆萨维是被邀请来设计这部剧的。穆萨维(Moussavi)和她的团队与奥敦多(ODundo)和波纳西纳(Bonacina)一起工作，首先围绕着根据技术或规模展示物品的想法，然后决定在画廊空间中创建一个不那么教条主义的“地形”。穆萨维说，抹大拉的旅程更真实。穆萨维解释说，作品被组合在一起，创造出鼓舞人心的“背景”，“但总是有重叠”，他想展示奥登多作品的无边界性质。“这是我们如何相互学习的一个例子；旅行和观察碎片和除了我们自己以外的人都会给人很大的启发。”

At the centre of each section will sit works by Odundo, plucked evenly from throughout her four-decade career. Pulling many of these works out of museums and placing them together has made an impact on Odundo. ‘It’s been surprising to see where I started and where I’ve got to,’ she says. ‘And realising what a long journey I have still to make. §

在每一节的中心将坐在奥登多的作品，从她的40年的职业生涯中平均抽取。把这些作品中的许多从博物馆里拉出来，并把它们放在一起，对奥敦多产生了影响。她说，看到我从哪里开始，这让人很惊讶。我意识到我还有很长的路要走。§

As originally featured in the March 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*240)

如2019年3月号“壁纸”*(W*240)中所介绍的

FarshidMoussavi，ODundo和AndrewBonacina在准备赫普沃思·韦克菲尔德的表演。摄影：苏菲·格林·法西德·穆萨维、奥登多和安德鲁·波纳西娜正在筹备赫普沃思·韦克菲尔德的展览。摄影：苏菲·格林

变形和转变，2011年，热吹玻璃，由Magdalene ODundo。摄影：苏菲绿色变形和改造，2011年，热吹玻璃，由Magdalene ODundo。摄影：苏菲·格林

正在演播室里工作。摄影：苏菲·格林正在演播室里工作。摄影：苏菲·格林