Week 5 - Pluralism and the Treat of Waitangi

In teaching week 5 you will discuss pluralism and the Treaty of Waitangi in your tutorials.
Use this discussion, the notes in your ALVC book and the internet to respond to the following questions;

1. Define the term 'pluralism' using APA referencing.

Pluralism is used, often in different ways, across a wide range of topics to denote a diversity of views, and stands in opposition to one single approach or method of interpretation (wikipedia.n.d.).

2. How would you describe New Zealand's current dominant culture?

New Zealand's current dominant culture is diversified.The culture of New Zealand is largely inherited from English and European custom, interwoven with Maori and Polynesian tradition. An isolated Pacific Island nation, New Zealand was comparatively recently settled by humans. Initially Māori only, then bicultural with colonial and rural values, now New Zealand is a cosmopolitan culture that reflects its changing demographics, is conscious of the natural environment, and is an educated, developed Western society(wikipedia.n.d.).New Zealand's arts and culture was obtained from all races, resulting in a combination of Maori, European, Asian and Oceania were the characteristics.

3. Before 1840, what was New Zealand's dominant culture?

Māori culture has predominated for most of New Zealand's history of human habitation. Māori voyagers reached the islands of New Zealand some time before 1300, though exact dates are uncertain. Over the ensuing centuries of Māori expansion and settlement, Māori culture diverged from its Polynesian roots. Māori established separate tribes, built fortified villages (Pā), hunted and fished, traded commodities, developed agriculture, arts and weaponry, and kept a detailed oral history.   It was then when young ones respected the elders and women had no say in important meetings. Regular European contact began approximately 200 years ago, and British immigration proceeded rapidly during the nineteenth century.Te Reo Maori was the common language heard among this country before the 1840’s (para.2).

4. How does the Treaty of Waitangi relate to us all as artists and designers working
in New Zealand?

New Zealand has two 'high cultural' traditions: Māori and Western.
Pre-European Māori visual art had two main forms: carving and weaving. Both recorded stories and legends and also had religious roles. When Europeans arrived, they brought with them Western artistic traditions. Early Pākehā art focussed mainly on landscape painting, although some of the best known Pākehā artists of the nineteenth century (Charles Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer) specialised in Māori portraiture. Some Māori adopted Western styles and a number of nineteenth century meeting houses feature walls painted with portraits and plant designs. From the early twentieth century Apirana Ngata and others began a programme of reviving traditional Māori arts, and many new meeting houses were built with traditional carving and tukutuku (woven wall panels) were built. A longstanding concern of Pākehā artists has been the creation of a distinctly New Zealand artistic style. Rita Angus and others used the landscape to try and achieve this while painters such as Gordon Walters used Māori motifs. A number of Māori artists, including Paratene Matchitt and Shane Cotton have combined Western modernism with traditional Māori art.


5. How can globalization be seen as having a negative effect on regional diversity in New Zealand in particular?

Globalization is  one cannot ignore the 'flattening' effect of the practice. Globalized trade and dedicated outsourcing of resources are bound to result in a conflict between various distinctive political forces.
Globalization is supposed to fuel and guarantee social, political and economic unification. However, developed and established economies continue to exploit the 'sharing' business to empower their own strong and wealthy economies. Subsequently, in the political arena, the reallocation of power is surfacing in the form of industrial and technological rivalry. On the social front, the world is now at a loss in the attempt to guard and flaunt diversity that is enriching. The random influx of ideology and lifestyles and unmonitored inter-cultural communication has resulted in the creation of a pseudo culture that is common across boundaries(Borade.n.d.).New Zealand also encountered the same problem on regional diversity.


 6. Shane Cotton's paintings are said to examine the cultural landscape. Research Cotton's work 'Welcome'(2004) and 'Forked Tongue' (2011) to analyze what he is saying about colonialization and the Treaty of Waitangi.

'Welcome' (2004) Shane Cotton

'Forked Tongue'(2011) Shane Cotton

Cotton's work evocatively includes both Maori iconography and culture, such as shrunken heads, mokomokai, and native birds such as tui, and European symbols and items. His paintings have explored questions of colonialism, cultural identity, Maori spirituality, and death. Many of his paintings go into depth of primitive ideas especially through Maori whakapapa (enotes,n.d.).In Witi Ihimaera’s “The Trowenna Sea” many of the Maori and Pakeha characters discuss the impact of the Treaty of Waitangi, their ambivalence about concepts of landownership and the notion of two cultures living in the one land.It is something of this ambivalence about the land and the cultural landscpae of New Zealand which is also at the heart of Shane Cotton’s art.These memories in turn develop into our individual and collective cultural landscapes.
In paintings such as “Forked Tongue”, which features a cliff face, a fantail, some Maori designs and a tracery of red lines these symbols or metaphors become starting points for an elaboration on the links between the physical, historical and spiritual landscapes.
All the works in the exhibition seem aged and fractured with an almost medieval feel to them. However, they also contain images which seem to provide hope with the images of natural images and lines which trace over these them suggesting links to the past and the future( Daly, 2010 ).


7. Tony Albert's installation 'Sorry' (2008) reflect the effects of colonization on the aboriginal people of Australia. Research the work and comment on what Albert is communicating through his work, and what he is referring to. Describe the materials that Albert uses on this installation and say what he hopes his work can achieve. Define the term 'kitsch'.

Tony Albert | Australia b.1981 | Girramay people | Sorry 2008 | Found kitsch objects applied  to vinyl letters | 99 objects :  200 x 510 x 10cm (installed) | The James C Sourris Collection.Purchased 2008 with funds from James C Sourris through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

The installation of Tony Albert’s Sorry 2008 was inspired by former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s formal apology to Indigenous Australians on 13 February 2008. On this day, Australia witnessed one of its most overtly optimistic displays of unity and emotion and, in the eyes of many, grew up. Capturing this outpouring of emotion in his work, Tony Albert introduces us to a forest of faces, each of which shares a history with those stolen from their people, land and culture. Each also represents a false identity; a manufactured black face made to fit a white society. By collecting and reintroducing these so-called ‘kitsch’ items into the world as ‘Aboriginal’ art, Albert affords each object a new and different life in the company of kindred souls: his practice is a liberation(Art in the first decade,2010).
kitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. Excessive sentimentality often is associated with the term. The contemporary definition of kitsch is considered derogatory, denoting works executed to pander to popular demand alone and purely for commercial purposes rather than works created as self-expression by an artist.
The concept of kitsch is applied to artwork that was a response to the 19th century art with aesthetics that convey exaggerated sentimentality and melodrama, hence, kitsch art is closely associated with sentimental art(Wikipedia,n.d.).



8. Explain how the work of both artists relates to pluralism.

I find that both Albert and Cotton's works include the culture of different regions ,and they express the idea of pluralism in their artworks by their cultural background. Albert and Cotton are admirable artist that They can be brave to express their inner thoughts.


References:
                 wikipedia.(n.d.).Retrieved August 1, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluralism
                 wikipedia.(n.d.).Retrieved August 25, 2011 from
                          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_New_Zealand
                 Borade,G.(n.d.). buzzle.com. Retrieved from                                                                           http://www.buzzle.com/articles/bad-effects-of-globalization.html 
                 enotes.(n.d.).Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/topic/Shane_Cotton
                 Daly,J.( 2010 ).The national Business Review Daly. From
                        http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/shane-cotton-paintings-examine-cultural-landscape-126412
                 Art in the first decade.(2010). From http://21cblog.com/behind-the-scenes-tony-albert-sorry-2008/
                 wikipedia.(n.d.).Retrieved August 26, 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch