Appropriation – Final Pieces
Appropriation – Piece 3
For my third piece on appropriation, I decided to tackle a more sensitive subject. Depicted here is an image of a Syrian girl riding her bike. What would be an image which is a uplifting, joyful reminder of childhood when put into a Western context, is in fact a very depressing image, serving as a harsh reminder of the children who are affected by this war. By adding cartoons to the image, I try to mix western culture with a Syrian photo, reminding the west of the children with deprived childhoods, and hopefully serving as a reminder that not all children have such easy childhoods.
Italian cultural appropriation
For my next piece I went along with a similar idea of cultural appropriation, but this time targeting the consumers and addressing the idea of globalisation. Cultural appropriation is, I believe a symptom of globalisation, as we share our cultures and are more easily able to trade goods. This can be seen here with the Italian coffee machine – although we drink Italian coffee (and drive German cars, and buy furniture from Sweden) it does not affect our own individuality. This photograph is targeted at the idea of nationality, those who take pride in it, and poking fun at the stereotypes that come with it. We live in a global world now – is it long before we really have any sense of a national identity?
Italian Stereotypes..
The urban dictionary definition of Cultural Appropriation..
Progressions
These are a few of the progressions my final image took, where I later decided to change the headband to be a much larger headdress, to make a larger statement out of the mockery of Indian culture.
Inspiration
This is a selection of all of the images that either inspired my work or became a part of it, at one stage or another. With a combination of yoga and Indian culture, all of it helped to put together my final piece.
My first image – Research
Research has began for my first piece of work with a simple google of ‘appropriation’. This is where I stumbled across this article about a ‘university cancelled yoga class’:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2015/11/university_canceled_yoga_class_no_it_s_not_cultural_appropriation_to_practice.html
The university became worried about cultural appropriation, which is a subject that is cropping up a lot recently in social media and on the news; similarly Coldplay have been accused of cultural appropriation of Indian culture in their latest music video. With a fair amount of debate recently on the appropriation of Indian culture, this is what inspired my piece.
