Category Archives: Social Justice

Globalization and Art

April 18, 2018academic-stlye, Reflections, Social Justiceewaldr

Across the world, there are Hollywood movies and McDonalds. These are part of what could be described as part of global culture(Eitzen). The spread of how to make art and what art should depict is also part of our global culture and ideas of what art should be in many ways follows that of other globalized cultural phenomenon, but it has some differences.

Art has always been a global phenomenon, so when examining art in the context of globalization the question is not how did art get to be everywhere, but rather how has globalization influenced and changed production of art.

I’ve selected some examples that demonstrate the some of the effects of globalization on art, specifically African art. As globalization happens ideas spread and so do ideas about how to make art. As Jayna Clemens puts it “Colonization had a major impact on Africa’s culture and history, including contemporary African art.” (Clemens 2). Colonization will unevenly (from colonizer to colonized) spread ideas about culture where ever it is located. Western seems to spread everywhere else.

For example, look at the work of Chéri Samba. It almost looks like it could be painted in Europe by a European, what shows the viewer that it is not European is his works distinctly depict Africa as a content and African people. His work is created in a post-colonial Democratic Republic of Congo (Chéri), which means that it must be influenced by European art. According to Clemens: “During post-colonialism, conceptual art design began to make its way into contemporary African art”. It is evident that in Samba’s work is contemporary in style and time. Samba is one example of an artist working in both a global art culture and a local art culture.

Even if it is Western culture that usually influences the world, there are examples of the non-Western world influencing the West. Here is an example. These are examples of ornate coffins made by Kane Quaye. These coffins are used to burry people and are found in many Western museums. At the Magiciens de la Terre show, Westerners first saw the works of a few non-Western artists, including Quaye’s coffins and the viewers where impressed (Kerman). The Magiciens de la Terre show, was an example of the world sharing culture, even though the amount of sharing was minimal, instead of globalization just being an exporting of culture.

I think in a cultural exchange between a non-Western country and a Western country, I think the western country will demand “authenticity”, which the definition of which is set to a particular time and place, and not to do with what the non-Western culture actually creates. Cultures constantly change what is the kind of food, visual art, music etc. that a culture uses and enjoys constantly changes. Artist move, cultural and national identity change. In the case of black British artist Yinka Shonibare, he is expected to create “African looking” art. In response to this pressure he creates The Victorian Philanthropist’s Parlour (Kerman), here. This art work and person are examples of globalization’s power to spread ideas and people around the world. The fabric is Dutch wax print fabric, which originates from Indonesian fabric designs. This kind of fabric is popular in Africa (I don’t know which country or region Dutch wax print is popular in). The figures are of black British footballers. (Kerman). The elements that went into this art are from the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Britain via Nigeria and generally the African continent.

The previous examples show that globalization is a two-way stream, to some extent. Here is another example: “African artist were experimenting with Western figuration and easel painting while Picasso was doodling with African sculptural forms” (Fisher). I think these examples illustrate that the effect of globalization on art is slightly different than the effects of globalization on other cultural phenomenon such as Hollywood or McDonalds.

Works cited

“Chéri Samba.” Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/artist/cheri-samba

Bussman, Jeffrey. “Yinka Shonibare’s The Victorian Philanthropist’s Parlour.” Title Magazine

Clemens, Jayna. “Impact of Colonialism on Contemporary African Art” 1, Dec. 2015.

Eitzen, D. Stanley, Zinn, Maxine Baca Globalization: The Transformation Of Social Worlds. Third Edition. Wadsworth cengage Learning. 2012. Pg. 145.

Fisher, Jean. “The work between us” Trade routes: history and geography, edited by Enwezor, O. pp.20-22.

Kerman, Monique. April 2018. Lecture, WWU, Bellingham.

Seattle Art Museum. Collections. http://art.seattleartmuseum.org/objects/10007/mercedes-benz-coffin?ctx=7cac674b-bf2e-4b34-bc8d-039e178ccca4&idx=2

Response to the Women’s March

I’m Proud to present my own art work! It’s called Response to the Women’s March.

My story behind art: I heard so many news stories before the march about how the organizers had diversified the planning team to get more support for the march. Then the march happened. I went to the Bellingham part. In my experience, it was huge, powerful and positive. I noticed that there where different groups of marchers: supporters for Planned Parenthood, people for science, gay rights, support for Muslims, people of color and so on. I noticed that a lot of the groups where from well-established movements.

Afterword I saw pictures from The New York Times and The Bellingham Herald. I could see the enormity and see the appeal to those around the world. I listened to NPR and heard how trans women felt left out, and heard Carly Fiorina talk about how we (marchers/democrats) talk about inclusion and diversity, but leave people out. I started thinking. Who did the Women’s March leave out? At the next meeting of VOX (voices for Planned Parenthood) where we talked about the Women’s March, and one thing we talked about who was left out. Then we attempted to write letters to the editor, where I originally did a sketch of my piece.

So, what’s in the sketch? On the left I have a lot of the movements that I thought where represented in the Women’s March, especially groups I saw in the part in Bellingham. A quick description of the left half of the picture: I write “We all marched separately.” Then I depict several groups: gay rights, women’s rights/Planned Parenthood supporters, Black Lives Matter, indigenous water protectors, and trans rights.

In the middle I have a depiction of the Women’s or as some called it Womxn’s March. There is a thick crowd of people cutting diagonally across the paper. Under them there is the caption “Then we all joined forces.” This is a little sarcastic.

On the right, there are groups that I felt or heard where left out of the March. I have conservative feminists, representing Carly Fiorina and feminists like her, dehomed activist (I just learned this term. It is a better word for homeless, but I didn’t know that when making the image), who I included because dehomed people are very often completely ignored, and trans women, whom I know felt left out of the Women’s March. Diagonally to them, I wrote “But we left some out.”

Detail image:

I concluded my response with the words in the upper right hand corner: “Let us all stand together as we reflect on what happened and is happening so we can work for social change and a better world, From Ruth Ewald, 19, WWU student, social justice fighter”. This is a call to start participating in critical social justice. I know that there are groups still left out of my image, but the point of my image isn’t to show every modern protest movement. It is to show what I saw and heard from and about the march. So, that’s the what and why of my art work.

Thanks to everyone who gave me input, ideas and inspiration fro this post. Image created by me. Paper, pencil, pen, colored pencil, scanned, snipped with Snipping Tool, edited for visibility on Word. Continue reading Response to the Women’s March →

Happy Black History Month/Valentine’s Day!

February 14, 2017Social Justiceewaldr

As I started this post I was intending to draw your attention way from Valentine’s day and toward oppression. I want you to celebrate Black History Month. If you’re African American tell (specifically white) Americans about your culture and important people. And if you’re white listen. If going to research important moments and pop culture and people from American history as related to African American individuals, go a head, excellent idea. Take time to learn about countries in African American culture and/or cultures form African countries. I won’t be posting about it. There are too many people, too many moments, I would need start a whole new part of my blog which would feature the left-out people from American history. I think today is a good day to start stopping oppression. Today, one way I will celebrate Black History Month is by posting about I am oppressive and what I need to do not to be.

- I’m oppressive because I’m white, and there for hold institutional, traditional power.
- I should use my white privilege to fight racism and my privileges to fight other operations, along with racism.
- When fighting oppressions that aren’t my own, my voice shouldn’t be the loudest, I shouldn’t speak for or over other people.
- I shouldn’t appropriate, I shouldn’t just take things from other people’s websites or blogs. This is a rule I always try to follow on this blog.
- I shouldn’t generalize, or stereotype. Even working to make new stereotypes is not appropriate.
- I believe I should fight for social change through critical social justice, and in doing so I need to have dialog and mutual learning.

I hope I have succeeded in my goal of making you think about oppression. I also hope you will do as I did and look up on other resources, info on Black history from the past and what is presently happening. Oh, and happy Valentines day!

Intersection: Faith and Critical Social Justice

February 7, 2017Faith, Social Justiceewaldr

Salt on the roads, salt of the earth.

On this Monday-snow-day I thought it would be good to use my extra time to reflect on my faith and what it means to me to be Christian. I hold a lot of believes about what it means to be Christian and those believes do evolve. My current central understanding of what it means to be a Christian means I should fight for social change with love and through critical social justice.

My current understanding of how to work for critical social justice is to first, know myself, understand how my socialization effects my world view and what my privileges are. Then I must be in dialogue with people, by loving, listening, and finding what solutions to social ills and injustices are needed, instead of doing what I want to do. To have a real dialog there must not be a power imbalance or hierarchy between me and people I am working with. I may have to get rid of or attempt to negate some of my privilege in order to participate fully in a dialog. While working for social change it is important that I mutually learn and teach while fighting for social justice. I need to reflect on what I am doing to make sure I am conscious of what I am doing and learning.

Why do I believe that to be Christian is to follow critical social justice? I believe Christians are supposed to follow the example set to us by Jesus. To love one another as God loves us. I believe God loves us unconditionally and contently works to help us create justice in the world. God was willing to come to earth and be human, ate with the least valued people, healed among other things before dying. Jesus doesn’t just heal people, he always asked first if he could heal. When asking his disciples to follow him, Jesus first tells his disciples to drop their earthly possessions and literally follow his footsteps, where ever he might travel to. Later on, he tells his disciples to leave everything they have and go spread knowledge of the love of God.

God has followed the steps of critical social justice except losing all power above humans and reflecting after Jesus dies. Being God, Jesus could not get rid of all his power, just like I can’t get rid of all of mine. And as for reflection I think, God’s reflection was not highly visible to the world, instead of non-existent. I claim “not highly visible” because I think it is visible in the Holy Spirit, the continuing love of God for us and our (that is humanities) continuing love of God and each other. This is how I see the life of Jesus as working through critical social justice and, therefore, how I think I am supposed to live my life.

I am a generational Episcopalian, currently a member of St. Paul’s B-ham.

Thanks to my parents and other people who formed my faith and to my Compass 2 Campus class and in particular the article Beyond Empathy: Developing Critical Consciousness Through Service Learning by Cynthia Rosenberger, for helping me become me, giving me my faith tradition, my passion for critical social justice and leading me on several occasions to connect the love of God to social justice.

The images are mine, crated on Word, and/or Paint and then captured and saved with Sniping Tool.