Yes, I think so. By having some artifacts of Native American cultures, I not only express my admiration and humility in the presence of their aesthetic but I also reinforce my inherited Euro-centrist heritage to demonstrate my ability to admire it without adopting its symbolic purposes. That heritage/ability enables me to feel superior to the artifacts, to remain unaffected by their magic or symbolism.
WC ________________________________ From: Saul Ostrow <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 1, 2009 7:51:50 AM Subject: Re: Heidegger and Historical Art William mr. miller would like to know if collection of Native American artifacts reflects your culture's "egocentric desire to believe itself to be universal" ? On 5/1/09 8:45 AM, "Chris Miller" <[email protected]> wrote: If art is "truth setting itself to work" (as Heidegger tells us), then the many times that one culture has appropriated the sacred text of another would qualify as an examples of civilizations "that take the religious artifacts and practices of others and turn them into art". So would the Buddhist devotional figures that traveled from India to China to Korea to Japan -- and sacred Hindu temple songs that were adopted by Arab/Persian musicians serving the Mughal court. And so, I speculate, would William Conger's. Does that collection merely Why don't we ask him? ____________________________________________ Saul Ostrow | Visual Arts & Technologies Environment Chair, Sculpture Voice: 216-421-7927 | [email protected] | www.cia.edu<http://www.cia.edu/> The Cleveland Institute of Art | 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106 ____________________________________________________________ Online Stock Trading - Straightforward pricing. Powerful tools. Click here! http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxQzTnsgqTRIhU20YWuJyAkXy Hf5G6jPhmCqoaTzmte4tXdYdoN4ly/ --
