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Lesson Plans


Re: are we allowed

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Brian Ronald Vance (brvance)
Tue, 11 Mar 1997 11:17:09 -0500 (EST)

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This is an interesting subject --- are we allowed to make objects that
are sacred to other cultures. I just saw a news report about a white
Austrailian woman who was "posing" as an aboringinal artist named Eddie
Burrup. She was selling traditional paintings to galleries and giving the
dealers the impression that she was from the Aboriginal people. That is
about all the details I recieved... I was wondering has anyone else seen or
heard anything else about this??? It seems like the ultimate in cultural
art fraud.

On Sun, 9 Mar 1997, Ben Schasfoort wrote:

> Carla wrote
> >By the way, last week, a young Native American student told our class
> >that we could not make dreamcatchers because we did not have to medicine
> >to do so. But, he added, we could make them using metal hoops and
> >wrapping them with yarn, because then they would just be beautiful
> >decorations, without the power to take away bad dreams. He, however,
> >could make real dreamcatchers because he had the medicine. It was a
> >wonderful learning moment, for me and for the class.
>
> Thanks Carla, this was a learning moment for me.
> Could we, to avoid problems of what art we may or may not make, say that art
> in nature is not art but a way of expressing visually one's relation to a
> subject?
> I have read and heard and seen pictures about the holocaust, some people I
> know lost family. I am a human being, can think of cruelties and can love. I
> am not Jewish, but have Jewish friends. Am I not allowed to express myself
> visually (I am a visual artist) if someone asks me what I think about the
> holocaust? Of course I am, but my answer will be different from that of my
> neighbours who as children, suffered in Mauthausen. I have not the right to
> think that I can feel the same as the Jewish student you mentioned, but you
> were perfectly right with your statement. We are allowed to "make"
> storytelling dolls and Hmong cloths and dreamcatchers and a crucifix and
> rainsticks and Aztec sacrificial pottery and more. But the fact is, we
> don't. We only say what we know from storytelling dolls and the holocaust
> and dreamcatchers.
> Am I right?
> Ben Schasfoort
> e-mail: ben.schasfoort
> Tel. and fax: (0) 597 55 15 03
>
>

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