BLURRED LINES: on cultural appropriation

It’s 1997, and I’m in Bali.  In a carving store, I’m looking at a wall of masks made by local Balinese carvers.  My eyes rest on one mask in particular; it looks startlingly familiar.  I am shocked when I recognize the Northwest Coast (of North America) motifs mixed with traditional Balinese style. How on earth did this happen? Was it by chance or was there some outside influence?  What were the implications?  Is this a blatant case of cultural appropriation?

A DEFINITION 

The concept of cultural appropriation exists within the realm of inspiration.  The diffusion of ideas is a common outcome of culture contact, and it can be argued that it has been for as long as groups of humans themselves have existed.  Cultural appropriation “is used to describe the taking over of creative or artistic forms, themes, or practices by one cultural group from another. It is in general used to describe Western appropriations of non‐Western or non‐white forms and carries connotations of exploitation and dominance.” -- The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature.   Ideas (designs, arts, philosophies) may be adopted by the dominant culture from the minority culture in a way that they are outside the original cultural context. “Often, the original meaning of these cultural elements is lost or distorted….Cultural elements which may have deep meaning to the original culture may be reduced to "exotic" fashion or toys by those from the dominant culture.” –Wikipedia.  

Model Karlie Kloss wears an Indian headdress during the 2012 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in New York. Victoria's Secret had to apologized for putting a native-style headdress on a model for its annual fashion show, after the outfit was criticized as a display of ignorance toward tribal culture and history. The company responded to the complaints by saying it was sorry to have upset anyone and that it wouldn't include the outfit in the show's television broadcast, or in any marketing materials. (Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press)

DISCUSSION

Paradoxically, over the last century and especially in the last 30 years, the world has become at once, smaller because of the advanced communication and technological developments, and larger, as it has opened up because of the very same mechanisms.  Ideas and designs spin from one side of the world to another in the blink of an eye.  The opportunity to draw inspiration from previously unreachable places has become de facto, even en vogue.  Along with the positive comes the negative.  The possibility for exploitation has also grown.  We have seen the accelerating rise of the discussion of intellectual property rights along with the technological innovations of the last twenty years.   For this reason, among many others, it is prudent to think about the current discussion about cultural appropriation.  Jewellers, as artists are involved in this discussion.  

Back to my example of the mask.  The Balinese are a curiously worldly people due to the vast numbers of foreigners they encounter in their tourism industry.  Their knowledge is broad and experienced; facts and understandings are gleaned from their interactions with foreigners from all over the world.  

What I was seeing at the carving store was the art of two colonized cultures from opposite sides of the planet coalescing on one mask.  

It took me three years, but I finally got the story behind this mystery.  A German “entrepreneur” had commissioned some Balinese carvers to produce masks in the style of Northwest Coast indigenous art; quite probably for resale and to avoid the prices of authentic northwest coast carvings (the real thing sells from $800.00 to $40,000.00 at the Douglas Reynold’s Gallery in Vancouver. ( http://www.douglasreynoldsgallery.com )

How does this story sit ethically?  Clearly, the German entrepreneur was engaged in exploitation, but of whom: Northwest Coast indigenous artists; the Balinese artists; his customers; all three?  Regardless, his is a clearer-cut example cultural appropriation.

But most cultural appropriation is a slippery slope.  Inspiration does not exist in a vacuum.  Artists borrow ideas from all sorts of places.  They build on ideas; they make complex compound sentences out of ideas. There is even the argument that there is “nothing new”.  Art is a constant dialogue; a discussion that we would be foolish to curtail. 

Take for example Van Gogh’s collection of Japanese Wood Block prints.

But even before Van Gogh and the wood block prints there was the Silk Road.  The Silk Road was a collection of trade routes between China, Mongolia, and Afghanistan, well into the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.  It was a way of economics in the form of trade, communication of ideas, style, and philosophies, and is an example of cultural diffusion on a grand scale.   We see many examples of style and art running along the routes; for instance, the images of the zodiac symbol of Capricorn, (the sea goat) and the Hindu god Makara.  Also, this picture of a buddha at the Lord Buddha Dambulla cave temple, Sri Lanka has an element at the top of a demon with water coming out of it’s mouth.   The same feature is found in the picture next to it, the fountain in Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon Rome, Italy.

SOME THOUGHTS THAT BLUR THE LINES

Archaeologist Bruce Trigger writes "if it is impossible to understand 17th century Huron history without reference to the history of New France, it was equally impossible to understand the history of New France without reference to the history of the Hurons and other aboriginal peoples."  -- Bruce Trigger (The Archaeology of Bruce Trigger [2006], p. 246)

Basically, to me that quote extrapolates into "if it is impossible to understand the position of the marginalized without reference to the hegemony, it is impossible to understand the hegemony without reference to the marginalized"  

Push that to the appropriated culture and the cultural appropriators and what happens?   And is that a fair comparison?  Are we being too literal about different types of art? Cultural Appropriation assumes that indigenous cultures exist in a vacuum and are not, themselves, being influenced by the hegemony’s culture.   Realistically, there is a back-and-forth flow that blurs the lines between hegemonical art and marginalized art.   That is not to say cultural appropriation does not exist.   There is a very active Facebook group called “Fraudulent Native Art Exposed” dedicated to calling out blatant copies of NWC artist’s material that is being sold with neither the artist’s consent, nor renumeration. 

Finally, Ian Hodder writes that material culture (such as art) can invert and distort as well as reflect social reality (Symbols in Action: Ethnoarchaeological Studies of Material Culture 1982).  An example of this is the Northwest Coast artist Andy Everson who is fond of Star Wars…..

CONCLUSION

My position is that, as an artist, one needs to be aware of potential power dynamics like cultural appropriation and include it in the discussion of your work if your work can be seen to ride the blurry line.  At the same time glory in inspiration from multiple sources, just do not steal ideas outright.