牛津下雪了!

 从2001年来英国到现在我这个中国东北佬第一次激动地见到了牛津的雪.所以我很同情在文学城网站人在英国的一个网友贴子’下雪了’贴了两次因此遭到一个网友的挪揄.

 

我起床后照例拉开窗帘映入我眼帘的不是通常的黑色屋顶而是一片银白.除马路上白的少点儿外所有都是白的.这令人稀罕的白,这令人惊喜的白!快门按动,留驻这一瞬间.因为我知道IT WON’T LAST LONG.果然中午太阳高悬后一切又变得和往日一样赤裸起来.但气温却没有恢复而且嗖嗖小风吹得人面色红润.今天骑自行车和步行不失为一种比较顽强的选择.

 

从BLACKWELL咖啡店出来兴奋地走在回家的路上,忽然想起了一星期前在大学图书馆前的CLARENDON QUAD举办的户外ICE GARDEN 展览.一些艺术家,科学家和教师们去了趟北北冰洋回来创造了很多同冰有关的作品.但和我们中国每年哈尔滨的冰雕艺术不一样.这次展览的主题是有关GLOBAL WARMING全球变暖的. 在展览的前两天我大概在晚上经过图书馆看到诺大的图书馆两层之间的空间被当成横幅上面流淌着一句句英文.后来我在展览正式开始那天将这些文字朗读并录到我的录音器里.下面我已将它誊写下来:

 

The pressure of our numbers the abundance of our inventions the blind forces of our desires and needs are generating a heat, the hot breath of our civilisation. How can we begin to restrain ourselves? We resemble a successful lichen,a ravaging bloom of algae, a mould enveloping the food…We are fouling our nest and we know we must act decisively against our immediate inclinations. But can we agree among ourselves we are a cleaver and quarrelsome species? In our public debates we can sound like rookery in full throat. We are superstitious, hierarchical and self interested. Just when the moment requires us to be rational even handed and altruistic… We are shaped by our history and biology to frame our plans within the short term, within the scale of single life time. Now we are asked to address the well being of unborn individuals we will never meet and who, contrary to the usual terms of the human interaction. We’ll not be returning favour. Pessimism is intellectually delicious, even thrilling, but the matter before us is too serious for mere self pleasuring. On our side we have our rationality which finds it highest expression and formalisation in good(?) science. We have a talent for working together when it suits us. Are we at the beginning of an unprecedented era of international co-operation or are we living in an Edwardian summer of reckless denial? Is this the beginning or the beginning of the end?

 

上面这段文字是整个展览的唯一文字也是其灵魂.如果大家对在看过展览中一个裸体健壮的怀孕妇女在冰山断裂声中从海洋里走向陆地走向太阳还感到费解的话,那么上面的这一段文字简直是一目了然:大家都知道地球发生了什么.人类的未来将会因为我们现在这一代的胡作非为承受什么样的代价?这是一段催人猛醒震聋发聩的文字,希望有时间慢慢将其译出来.

 

望着一快快叠起的冰阵,一群大概20多个穿着整齐且比较统一的中国大陆游客闪动着手中的快门.这一切被走向图书馆的我收入眼中.他们是来旅游牛津参观大学图书馆的,真巧赶上了展览的准备工作,赶上了这’难得’的拍照机会.但遗憾的是这些同胞们没有机会来真正地参观一下这个展览.看看那位怀着人类未来的妇女,听听北冰洋冰雪的融化声.另外主办方(http://www.capefarewell.com)还在18日中午搞了一个辩论,主题为:环球变暖--对亚洲的影响.因为那天事情太多没抽出时间去看热闹.现在回想起来觉得很遗憾.

 

思绪回到眼前又飘起的小雪花.走在路上感到比平日格外的冷.快到家时路过ROSE AND CROWN 忍不住钻进去喝了两杯.端着酒杯望着壁炉里窜动的火苗心里萌升了一个计划.这个计划现在公布还为时过早,但一定要做.走出酒吧前来了一群看起来都像到了18岁的英国青少年.他们想买酒被酒吧主人拒绝.后来酒吧主对我说,我们制定了法就要执行.不能象西班牙和欧洲一些国家那样由警察来执法.

 

从酒吧出来雪花似乎有些大了而且更大胆地在夜幕的掩护下舞蹈起来.

 

附:在牛津大学举办的’冰园展览’

15-18 December 2005
Clarendon Quad, Bodleian Library, Oxford
Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey, Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Peter Clegg, Max Eastley, Ian McEwan

The Ice Garden is the first Cape Farewell exhibition showing works inspired by voyages with artists, scientists and educators into the High Arctic. Artists Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey, Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Peter Clegg, Max Eastley, and Ian McEwan have developed sound, light, text and sculptural installations for the Clarendon Quad in front of the Bodleian Library.

The Ice Garden features ten two-metre-high columns of ice, signalling the volume of carbon dioxide generated by each person in the UK each year. On a sheet of water, messages and images from the frozen Arctic fleetingly appear. Projected onto the walls of the Bodleian Library, a chilling call to action. Elsewhere in the quad a fragment of glacier, complete with pieces of earth, emits the sound of disintegrating ice.

The exhibition runs from 4pm-8pm and admission is free. Download a PDF version of the exhibition brochure below.
Download Brochure 616Kb

Sunday 18 December, 1-3pm
Climate Change - The Impact in Asia
is an open discussion, led by Saleemul Huq, director of the Climate Change Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development, with Professor Diana Liverman of Environmental Change, Oxford University and David Buckland. The discussion is taking place at The Asian Cultural Centre, Manzil Way, Oxford.