Apparently the latest work from my ex-photography tutor (back in my short-lived art-student days) is causing a bit of strife with the local Jewish community. Sure, there are swastikas in his works, but he's right in the fact that, before the Nazis appropriated it, it was a Hindu symbol of peace. When I was in Bali years ago there were still hotels named after this symbol, and these guys sure as hell weren't Nazi sympathisers or anti-Zionists. He probably couldn't have chosen a better example to illustrate his statement about the mis-appropriation of cultural symbols.
I haven't seen the exhibition mentioned, but I have seen some of his other works and this I know for sure. Wayne Youle is a stirrer.
4 comments:
The same symbol is also seen in Buddhist temples all over Asia since Buddhism is really derived from Hinduism- it's also been found in Turkey, Africa, as well as North America in Native American pottery. Amazing, too bad Hitler ruined the connotations of it in the Western world
Sad though, that it ended up on the arm of Souixie Souix. Great set of pipes but sod-all elsewhere.
I have also seen this symbole in Native American art.
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We have a really interesting documentary on DVD, about how the swastika became the symbol of the Nazi party. It's called "The Occult History of the Third Reich". I was really interested to find out that there was a time when it was really trendy to use the swastika as a decoration in the same way that it's been trendy to be interested in Wicca.
Yeah it always has negative connotations now doesn't it? Pity
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