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

It is in this article that I found a photograph for my first appropriation piece of work shown below. 

 

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 yoga piece.

 

The urban dictionary definition of Cultural Appropriation suggests as to the great ridiculousness of cultural appropriation that perhaps a lot of young people agree with, however I know from personal experience asking friends that young people are on both sides of the fence! I would agree however that complaints of cultural appropriation does hinder progress and perhaps even does support segregation. When we segregate cultures I believe it can brew racism and anti immigration feelings. We should be celebrating a mix of cultures rather than defending our own, as that simply leads to pushing people away in times of need (such as the Syrians of the refugee crisis) simply because we feel a right to our own ‘culture’ and that it could possibly be a bad thing to share cultures! This is what inspired my Syrian appropriation piece.

 

Jeff Koons

Koons piece of work ‘Bourgeois Bust’ inspired my own work, with my yoga piece drawing a lot of inspiration from him. Bourgeois Bust explored the idea of creating himself and his wife as a higher being, taking aspects from the Greek Goddess Venus and putting them into his wives sculpture, Koons replicates statues of Greek Gods. I liked the idea that we can make ourselves whoever we want to be by taking from others, even though it may be downright untrue and unrealistic, in the piece of art we are still giving the perception of being of a different kind. In a society where people are perhaps becoming more egotistical (although thats another discussion altogether) appropriation gives others the opportunity to paint themselves as something they’re not, or at least jest at the idea of themselves being of a similar being to whoever and whatever they are taking from.

‘Bourgeois Bust’

For  this 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?

 

Here are a few italian stereotypes that came up when googling into google images…

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.

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.

And here is my final outcome; this piece of work shows a rather blatant cultural appropriation. I wanted to almost mock the idea, by really going over the top with the amount of things this western woman has taken from Indian culture. Although I do believe it doesn’t look entirely out of place, therefore encouraging my belief that cultural appropriation is OK and should be encouraged. If it is aspects of the culture and practises that brings you peace in our society, then by all means we should be encouraging it.

 

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. I also feel this is especially relevant now with the current immigration crisis; we need to be more accepting of others and their cultures, and be less afraid of letting them in. People need to see what terrible conditions the refugees have to endure, and see a comparison to our own comfy western lives.

Tackling a serious subject, some may find this extremely offensive, however I would argue it draws an important contrast between the two situations. Its important to remember the harsh realities of others less privileged, as I believe in the West we try to avoid seeing difficult things, and so can surround ourselves with warm cartoons and other pleasurable visuals.