“Becoming White”: The Problem of Fine Art Neocolonization in Postcolonial Era

Kasiyan Kasiyan Kasiyan

doi:10.24036/humanus.v21i1.113549

“Becoming White”: The Problem of Fine Art Neocolonization in Postcolonial Era

Kasiyan Kasiyan Kasiyan⁽¹⁾,
(1) Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta

Indonesia

Corresponding Author
Copyright (c) 2022 Humanus

DOI : https://doi.org/10.24036/humanus.v21i1.113549

Full Text:

Language : en

Abstract

One of the crucial-cultural matters experinced by all colonialized nations, not to mention Indonesia, is their incapability in becoming free from the shackles of colonialism syndrome. In terms of Indonesian context, for instance, this problem, can be easily identified almost in every existing layer of its civilization system, not to mention in fine arts, either in its artifact, sociofact or ideofact level that is under the infuence of Western hegemony. For this reason, this particular study focuses on: firstly, describing the construction of Western character hegemony found in fine arts in Indonesia; and secondly, identifying for an outlet from the issue of Western hegemony in Indonesian fine arts. The qualitative-hermeneutic approach was used to explain that phenomenon. The analysis of data found through out this study revealed the following results. West hegemony has become an obsession curse beyond all of desire, in its cultural performance in this postcolonial era. This is what merely called the ‘becoming white’ phenomenon. In Indonesian contexts, the construction of this phenomenon particularly in fine arts world is manifested in its hegemonic historiography embodiment that is dissolved in the Western centric mainstream. Hence, a set of strategic cultural processes are necessary to be conducted for the sake of finding the best solution towards that problem. And one of the processes is by conducting methodological deconstruction over all knowledge epistemology including fine arts knowledge existed and owned by this nation.

Keywords

becoming white, neocolonization, fine arts postcolonization

References

Acker, W.V. & Mical, T. (2020). Architecture and ugliness: Anti-Aesthetics and the ugly in postmodern architecture. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Adesida, O. & Oteh, A. O. (2005). African Voices - African Visions (2nd Ed.). Nordic Africa Institute.

Ainslie, H. & Drummond, J. R. (2015). Science and the Cultural Matrix. He Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies Issues and Ideas, 39(4), 237–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.1964.11476684

Alberti, J. (2014). Screen ages: A survey of American cinema. Routledge.

Aligwekwe, P. E. (2008). The Continuity of Traditional Values in the African Society: The Igbò of Nigeria (2nd Ed.). Xlibris, Corp.

Andrewes, F. (2003). A Culture of speed: The dilemma of being modern in 1930’s Australia. University of Melbourne.

Ascari, M. (2013). From Spiritualism to Syncretism: Twentieth-Century Pseudo-Science and the Quest for Wholeness. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 34(1), 9–21. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1179/174327909X421425

Ashcroft, ‎B., Griffiths, ‎G. & Tiffin, H. (2013). Post-Colonial studies: The key concepts (3th Ed.). Routledge.

Barthes, R. (1998). Mythologies. Vintage Publishing.

Basit, T. N. (2017). Eastern values; Western milieu: Identities and aspirations of adolescent British Muslim girls. Routledge.

Bazzano, M. (2012). Immanent vitality: Reflections on the actualizing tendency. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 11(2), 137–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.672930

Bignall, S. (2011). Postcolonial agency: Critique and constructivism (plateaus - new directions in deleuze studies). (1st Ed.). Edinburgh University Press.

Bivan, A.D, Iwoketok, U.E. & Agye, Z. (2018). Hybridity and ambivalence: the consequence of the diaspora compromise. Diaspora Studies, 11(1), 25–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09739572.2017.1331608

Bosma, U. (2012). Post-colonial immigrants and identity formations in the Netherlands. Amsterdam University Press.

Brown, B J. & Baker, S. (2007). Philosophies of Research into Higher Education. A&C Black.

Brubaker, R. & Cooper, F. (2000). Beyond identity. Theory and Society Journal, 29(1), 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007068714468

Bulhof, I. N. (2012). Wilhelm Dilthey: A Hermeneutic Approach to the Study of History and Culture. Springer Science & Business Media.

Camillo, A. A. (2015). Handbook of research on global hospitality and tourism management. IGI Global.

Carrabine, E. (2018). Punishment in the frame: Rethinking the history and sociology of art. The Sociological Review, 66(3), 559-576. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026117705031

Carroll, N. (2012). Philosophy of art: A contemporary introduction. Routledge.

Clarke, S. & Garner, S. (2010). White identities: A critical sociological approach. Pluto Press.

Clarke, A. (2021). The dis/comfort of white British nationhood: encounters, otherness and postcolonial continuities. Social & Cultural Geography, 22(6), 745–766. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2019.1645199

Cobel-Tokarska, M. (2021). Problems and contradictions in Polish postcolonial thought in relation to Central and Eastern Europe. Postcolonial Studies, 24(1), 139–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2020.1753319

Croce, B. (1981). Benedetto Croce, poetry and literature: An introduction to its criticism and history. Southern Illinois University Press.

Crowther, P. (2009). Phenomenology of the visual arts (even the frame). Stanford University Press.

Dewi, K.S.R., Andayani, & Wardhani, N. E. (2017). Citra Emansipasi Perempuan dalam Kisah Mahabarata: Pelurusan Makna Peran dan Kebebasan bagi Perempuan Modern. Jurnal Masyarakat & Budaya, 19(2), 203–218. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14203/jmb.v19i2.492

Dirlik, A. (2002). Rethinking Colonialism: Globalization, Postcolonialism, and The Nation. Interventions, 4(3), 428–448. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801022000013833

Dunkley, D. A. (2011). Readings in Caribbean History and Culture: Breaking Ground. Lexington Books.

Easthope, A. (2008). Bhabha, hybridity and identity. Textual Practice, 12(2), 341–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502369808582312

Edmonstone, J. (2019). Is action learning culture bound? An exploration. Action Learning: Research and Practice, 16(3), 223–237. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767333.2019.1627777

Ekmeleddin, Y. (2013). History of the Ottoman State, society and civilisation. Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture.

Elsheshtawy, Y. (2008). The evolving Arab city: Tradition, modernity and urban development (planning, history and the environment). Routledge.

Fecho, B. & Clifton, J. (2016). Dialoguing across cultures, identities, and learning: crosscurrents and complexities in literacy classrooms. Routledge.

Fenner, D. E. W. (2014). Art in context: Understanding Aesthetic Value. Ohio University Press.

Figley, C. R. (2013). Traumatology of grieving: Conceptual, theoretical, and treatment foundations. Routledge.

Finlayson, J. G. (2014). Hegel, Adorno and the Origins of Immanent Criticism. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 22(6), 1142-1166,. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2014.993918

Fletcher, R. (2013). Science, Ideology, and the Media: Cyril Burt scandal. Routledge.

Friedman, J. (2008). Cultural theory as individualistic ideology: Rejoinder to Ellis. 7(1), 129–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/08913819308443291

Fuente, E. D. . (2007). The New Sociology of Art’: Putting Art Back into Social Science Approaches to the Arts. Cultural Sociology, 1(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/1749975507084601

Gardetti. M.A. & Muthu, S. S. (2015). Handbook of sustainable luxury textiles and fashion. Springer.

Garner, S. (2007). Whiteness: An introduction. Routledge.

Genov, N. (2016). Global trends in Eastern Europe. Routledge.

Hale, G. E. (2010). Making whiteness: The culture of segregation in the south, 1890-1940. Vintage Books.

Halliwell, S. (2009). The aesthetics of mimesis: Ancient texts and modern problems. Princeton University Press.

Hamersma, H. (2008). Pintu masuk ke dunia filsafat. Kanisius.

Hanquinet, L & Savage, M. (2015). Routledge international handbook of the sociology of art and culture. Routledge.

Hasanuddin, W. S. (2016). The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Minangkabau Traditional Expressions: Local Wisdom of the Society in Advising and Noble Advicing. Humanus: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu-Ilmu Humaniora, 15(2), 131–141. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24036/jh.v15i2.6513

Hawley, J. C. (1998). The postcolonial crescent: Islam’s impact on contemporary literature. Peter Lang.

Hedesan, G.D. & Rudbøg, T. (2021). Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heyman, A. (2021). Was the East Latin? Mediterranean Historical Review, 36(1), 95–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518967.2021.1900183

Hiddleston, J. (2014). Understanding Postcolonialism (Understanding Movements in Modern Thought) (1st Ed.). Routledge.

Hillenbrand, M. (2010). Communitarianism, or, how to build East Asian theory. Postcolonial Studies, 13(4), 317-334,. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2010.526538

Hurley, E. A. (2000). Through a black veil: Readings in french Caribbean poetry. Africa World.

Izzo, D. G. (2009). The influence of mysticism on 20th century British and American literature. McFarland & Company.

Jackson, R. L. (2010). Encyclopedia of identity. SAGE Publications Inc.

Jacobson, L. R. (2018). ‘The Eurasian question’’: The colonial position and postcolonial options of colonial mixed ancestry groups from British India, Dutch East Indies and French Indochina compared.’ Uitgeverij Verloren Publishing.

Kapferer, J.N. & Bastien, V. (2012). The luxury strategy: Break the rules of marketing to build luxury brands. Kogan Page.

Keese, A. (2014). Slow Abolition within the Colonial Mind: Britishand French Debates about ‘“Vagrancy”’, ‘“AfricanLaziness”’, and Forced Labour in West Central andSouth Central Africa, 1945–1965. International Review of Social History, 59, 377–407. https://doi.org/0.1017/S0020859014000431

Keller, C. (2012). Postcolonial theologies: Divinity and empire. Chalice Press.

Kelly, C. R. (2021). Whiteness, repressive victimhood, and the foil of the intolerant left. First Amendment Studies, 55(1), 59–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/21689725.2021.1895863

Kian-Woon, K. (2000). We Asians: Between past and future: A millennium regional conference. Singapore Heritage Society.

Knauft, B. M. (2019). Self-possessed and Self-governed: Transcendent Spirituality in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism,. 84(4), 557–587. https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2017.1313289

Koschnick, W. J. (2016). Standard dictionary of advertising, mass media and marketing. De Gruyter.

Labador, A. & Zhang, D. (2021). The “American Dream” for Whom? Contouring Filipinos’ and Filipino/a/x Americans’ Discursive Negotiation of Postcolonial Identities. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2021.1945129

Lapan, S.D., ‎Quartaroli, ‎M.T. & Riemer, F. J. (2011). Qualitative Research: An Introduction to Methods and Designs. John Wiley & Sons.

Lewis, W. S. (2005). Knowledge versus “Knowledge”: Louis Althusser on the Autonomy of Science and Philosophy from Ideology. Rethinking Marxism, 17(3), 455–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935690500122354

Liguori, D. M. (2017). Returning the aesthetics to the heart of the design process. On the conflict between social design and product beauty. 20(1), 304–316.

Lopez, A. J. (2012). Postcolonial whiteness: A critical reader on race and empire. SUNY Press.

Lucas, G. R. (2012). Is hermeneutics ‘philosophy’? Interpretation and overinterpretation of the past. 21(2), 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-6599(94)00229-9

Luttikhuis, B. (2013). Beyond race: constructions of ‘Europeanness’ in late-colonial legal practice in the Dutch East Indies. European Review of History: Revue Européenne d’histoire, 20(4), 539–558. https://doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2013.764845

Ma, W. (2014). East meets west in teacher preparation: Crossing Chinese and American borders. Teachers College Press.

Madden, C. (2005). Indicators for arts and cultural policy: A Global perspective. Cultural Trends, 14(3), 217–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548960500436824

Manghani, S., Piper, A. & Simons, J. (Ed.). (2006). Images: A reader. SAGE Publications Inc.

McLaren, P. (1995). Postmodernism, post-colonialism and pedagogy. James Nicholas Publishing.

McLeod, J. (2010). Beginning postcolonialism (2nd Ed.). Manchester University Press.

Meloy, J. M. (2006). Problems of writing and representation inqualitative inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 6(4), 315–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839930060404

Metz, T. (2015). How the West Was One: The Western as individualist, the African as communitarian. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(11), 1175–1184. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2014.991502

Milders, L. A. (2021). White hallucinations. Postcolonial Studies, Jun, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2021.1938834

Miles, M.B.A., Huberman, M., & Saldaña, J. (2013). Qualitative Data Analysis. SAGE Publications Inc.

Mirhosseini, S.A. & Noori, M. (2019). Doing qualitative research: the craft of naturalistic inquiry. Educational Action Research, 27(2), 331–333. https://doi.org/10.1080/09650792.2018.1527238

Nayar, P. K. (2010). Postcolonialism: A guide for the perplexed. Bloomsbury Academic Publishing.

Neves, J. (2020). Underglobalization: Beijing’s media urbanism and the chimera of legitimacy. Duke University Press.

Nguyen, D.T. & Fussell, S. R. (2012). How did you feel during our conversation?: retrospective analysis of intercultural and same-culture instant messaging conversations. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 117–126. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1145/2145204.2145225

Noor, N.H.M., SHajar, S.A.B & Idris, M. A. (2015). The Determinant of Nonprofit External and Internal Effectiveness: The Role of Knowledge Sharing, Collaborative Culture, and Beneficiary Participation. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(5), 459–474. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2015.1076550

Normand, B. L. (2014). Designing tito’s capital: Urban planning, modernism, and socialism in belgrade (culture politics & the built environment). University of Pittsburgh Press.

Ọjọajogwu, O. N. (2006). Social and cultural identity of an African society: The igala people of Nigeria. Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation.

Oloka-Onyango, J. (2015). Battling over human rights: Twenty essays on law, politics and governance. Langaa RPCIG.

Parry, B. (2004). Postcolonial studies: A materialist critique. Routledge.

Pieke, F. N. (2021). Global East Asia: Into the twenty-first century. University of California Press.

Polyudova, E. (2021). Art museums in modern society. Cambridge Scholars.

Ram-Prasad, C. (2013). Eastern philosophy. Cassell.

Redhead, S. (2004). Paul Virilio: Theorist for an Accelerated Culture (2nd Ed.). University of Toronto Press.

Ritzer, G. (2004). Encyclopedia of social theory. SAGE Publications Inc.

Rosa, H. (2010). High-Speed Society: Social Acceleration, Power, and Modernity (1st Ed.). Penn State University Press.

Saglia, D. (2010). Consuming Egypt: Appropriation and the Cultural Modalities of Romantic Luxury. 24(3), 317–332. https://doi.org/10.1080/08905490220150546

Sayuti, S. A. (2014). Seni dan pendidikan seni: Gelanggang konstruksi identitas. Prosiding The 1st International Conference of Arts and Arts Education on Indonesia.

Segre, S. (2014). Contemporary sociological thinkers and theories. Ashgate.

Shahjahan, R. A. (2015). Being ‘Lazy’ and Slowing Down: Toward decolonizing time, our body, and pedagogy. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47(5), 488–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2014.880645

Skórczewski, D. & Polakowska, A. (2020). Polish literature and national identity: A postcolonial perspective. University of Rochester Press.

Smith, A. D. (1991). National identity. Penguin Press.

Smith, C. (2013). Dreadnought Science: The Cultural Construction of Efficiency and Effectiveness. Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 77(2), 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1179/175035207X204815

Smith, E. W. L. (2014). The psychology of artists and the arts. McFarland & Company, Inc.

Smith, L. H. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples (2nd Ed.). Zed Books Ltd.

Steinvorth, U. (2013). The Metaphysics of modernity: What makes societies thrive. Marquette University.

Stupples, P. (2014). The social life of art. Cambridge Scholars.

Sutrisno, M. (2005). Teks-teks kunci estetika: Filsafat seni. Galang Press.

Swartz, D. (2012). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. University of Chicago Press.

Taussig, M. (2018). Mimesis and alterity: A particular history of the senses. Routledge.

Taylor, C. (2007). A secular age. Belknap.

Thomas, J. (2014). The minds of the moderns: Rationalism, empiricism, and philosophy of mind. Routledge.

Tibebu, T. (2012). Edward wilmot blyden and the racial nationalist imagination. University of Rochester Press.

Tomlinson, J. (2007). The culture of speed: The coming of immediacy. SAGE Publications Inc.

Trungpa, C. (2016). Mindfulness in Action: Making Friends with Yourself through Meditation and Everyday Awareness. Shambhala Publication.

Vicini, F. (2017). Thinking through the heart: Islam, reflection and the search for transcendence. 18(2), 110–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2017.1326958

Weil, M., Reisch, M.S., & Ohmer, M. L. (Ed.). (2012). The Handbook of Community Practice (2nd Ed.). SAGE Publications Inc.

Yitah, H. (2019). Philosophical foundations of the African humanities through postcolonial perspectives. Brill.

Yue, A. (2018). He ‘diaspora advantage’ of Pauline Chan (1956–): from multicultural filmmaker to cultural broker. Culture, Theory and Critique, 59(2), 158–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/14735784.2018.1429940