Changing Topics Conversation: Historical and Cultural Appropriation
Artists participating in the discussion of "Historical and Cultural Appropriation": Jordan Pieper, Thomas Orr, Aleka Tomlinson, Rowland Ricketts, Ben Skiba, Joanna Bloom (not pictured), Ivan Carmona, Eva Kwong, Namita Wiggers.
With so much recent media attention being given to the subject of appropriation, we decided to address the topic, at our recent conversation, as it relates to history and culture in craft. Our discussion made several circles back to the topic of contemporary authorship. The metaphor of genetic modification was proposed as an example of how our culture's quick need for profit (or authorship) allows ideas to be transformed without first being fully "digested".
Other perspectives challenged were the idea of "tradition", the questioning of what is culture, and how we define it, and the need for multiple critical views about craft, rather than a master narrative.