"How Do We Think About Cultural Diversity" (Lecture Notes)

Since the 1970's the representation of culture in the arts has become much more diverse and has broken away from the traditional white western culture that had saturated it. However the representations of other cultures, are still not always made by a member of the culture that is attempting to show it.

This lecture highlighted the way actions such as these if made in a derogatory sense, may still be seen as cultural repression in the arts and asked us to think about how we represent ourselves and how our work may inadvertently represent other cultures.

Cultural Diversity in Film

The lecture included discussion on the cultural importance of the Charles Chauvel film Jedda. This is the first example of a film that starred two Aboriginal actors in the leading roles. While actors had been casted in Aboriginal roles in film before, they were always played by actors from other cultures impersonating members of the race which is a strong example of the repression that certain cultures have been subjected to, particularly in film. Jedda chose to break away from that and cast actors that were a true representation.

The controversy over "whitewashing" in film is still ongoing as is seen with the 2016 upcoming film release Nina. The casting of Zoe Saldana has been called into question by some for being made to appear darker than her natural skin colour and wearing a prosthetic nose in the film.

Cultural Diversity in Art

An example of artwork that highlights cultural diversity that I particularly like is created by artists such as Amelia Peláez and Wifredo Lam. These Cuban artists both paint in a very similar style to each other and create pieces that represent Cuban art's traditional African, South American, North American and European influences and show that art can be incredibly culturally diverse.

 Amelia Peláez

Wifredo Lam