'The Awful Stuff': Colin McCahon, High Art, and the Common Culture 1947-2000

<p>This thesis analyses the conditions of artistic production at two pivotal moments in the reception of modernism in New Zealand: the emergence of a tradition of modernist painting in the work of Colin McCahon in the late 1940s, and the dispersal of that tradition under the impact of postmodernism and postcolonialism circa 1990 in the work of Michael Parekowhai and Ronnie van Hout, among others. Artists’ distinctive engagement with a broad compass of visual culture is considered alongside a critique of local high culture in relation to the culture of everyday life. The reception of this work is figured as emblematic of the historical contestation over the representation of the everyday; a struggle for visibility which reveals the social antagonisms of New Zealand culture. The first part of the thesis considers the vituperative critical response to McCahon’s use of formal devices drawn from comic books and commercial design in the late 1940s, against the background of the establishment of the national high culture. It accounts for the response by exploring the social factors inherent in critical disdain for commercial art and mass culture, which drew on the trenchant opposition of British intellectuals, and suggests that in McCahon’s work popular culture is employed as a form of aesthetic primitivism with which to represent the barbarities of World War II, as well as to express the experience of everyday life in New Zealand to a broad public audience. It concludes that fundamental to the antagonism over his work was disagreement over what constituted local cultural authenticity. The second part of the thesis considers problems of New Zealand high culture figured in antagonistic relation to the culture of everyday life that were advanced by New Zealand critics in the years after McCahon produced his popular-culture inflected paintings. The anti-Americanism of New Zealand culture is considered in relation to the rise of the ‘comics menace’ as a source of moral panic in the early 1950s. However, the interest of a new generation of New Zealand scholars in popular culture is observed in changing attitudes towards comic strips (and to American culture) in the 1980s. The same scholars also seek new terms for local critical address. A final chapter of this section explores the afterlife of McCahon’s work following his death in 1987, tracking the movement of the work out into the common culture and the high culture’s contestation of his modernist legacy. The third part of the thesis opens with an account of aspects of art practice under emerging cultural conditions of postmodernism and postcolonialism in New Zealand in the 1990s, and explores the continued role of McCahon’s work in expressing and revising issues of national identity. Central here is ‘Choice!’ (1990), an exhibition of contemporary Māori art, which introduced Michael Parekowhai’s work and precipitated an ongoing discussion on the politics of identity in contemporary art. While Parekowhai located aspects of Māori identity in the traditions of high art and globalised mass culture, other artists interrogated national identity by similar means. The result was an expansion of the terms both of national identity and of the critical territories of the high culture. The thesis concludes by examining the critical furore that arose when Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s new national museum, opened with the exhibition of a painting by Colin McCahon beside a refrigerator of the same vintage. The debate, which ensued, was largely concerned with the desire of critics to separate the domain of art from the domain of everyday life. This analysis demonstrates how contestation between the high culture and the common culture represents a recurring and generative dynamic in the history of New Zealand art—in which McCahon is a pivotal figure—during the second half of the twentieth century.</p>

'The Awful Stuff': Colin McCahon, High Art, and the Common Culture 1947-2000

<p>This thesis analyses the conditions of artistic production at two pivotal moments in the reception of modernism in New Zealand: the emergence of a tradition of modernist painting in the work of Colin McCahon in the late 1940s, and the dispersal of that tradition under the impact of postmodernism and postcolonialism circa 1990 in the work of Michael Parekowhai and Ronnie van Hout, among others. Artists’ distinctive engagement with a broad compass of visual culture is considered alongside a critique of local high culture in relation to the culture of everyday life. The reception of this work is figured as emblematic of the historical contestation over the representation of the everyday; a struggle for visibility which reveals the social antagonisms of New Zealand culture. The first part of the thesis considers the vituperative critical response to McCahon’s use of formal devices drawn from comic books and commercial design in the late 1940s, against the background of the establishment of the national high culture. It accounts for the response by exploring the social factors inherent in critical disdain for commercial art and mass culture, which drew on the trenchant opposition of British intellectuals, and suggests that in McCahon’s work popular culture is employed as a form of aesthetic primitivism with which to represent the barbarities of World War II, as well as to express the experience of everyday life in New Zealand to a broad public audience. It concludes that fundamental to the antagonism over his work was disagreement over what constituted local cultural authenticity. The second part of the thesis considers problems of New Zealand high culture figured in antagonistic relation to the culture of everyday life that were advanced by New Zealand critics in the years after McCahon produced his popular-culture inflected paintings. The anti-Americanism of New Zealand culture is considered in relation to the rise of the ‘comics menace’ as a source of moral panic in the early 1950s. However, the interest of a new generation of New Zealand scholars in popular culture is observed in changing attitudes towards comic strips (and to American culture) in the 1980s. The same scholars also seek new terms for local critical address. A final chapter of this section explores the afterlife of McCahon’s work following his death in 1987, tracking the movement of the work out into the common culture and the high culture’s contestation of his modernist legacy. The third part of the thesis opens with an account of aspects of art practice under emerging cultural conditions of postmodernism and postcolonialism in New Zealand in the 1990s, and explores the continued role of McCahon’s work in expressing and revising issues of national identity. Central here is ‘Choice!’ (1990), an exhibition of contemporary Māori art, which introduced Michael Parekowhai’s work and precipitated an ongoing discussion on the politics of identity in contemporary art. While Parekowhai located aspects of Māori identity in the traditions of high art and globalised mass culture, other artists interrogated national identity by similar means. The result was an expansion of the terms both of national identity and of the critical territories of the high culture. The thesis concludes by examining the critical furore that arose when Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s new national museum, opened with the exhibition of a painting by Colin McCahon beside a refrigerator of the same vintage. The debate, which ensued, was largely concerned with the desire of critics to separate the domain of art from the domain of everyday life. This analysis demonstrates how contestation between the high culture and the common culture represents a recurring and generative dynamic in the history of New Zealand art—in which McCahon is a pivotal figure—during the second half of the twentieth century.</p>

Breaking nation: Brazilian transnational children’s construction of belonging in bilingual classrooms

This article explores Brazilian children’s belonging-making in Portuguese–English bilingual classrooms in the United States. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over fifteen months, we found that the participating Brazilian children frequently referenced Brazil in their classrooms. Through these references, the children forged their own conceptions of what belonging means and created spaces of belonging in their bilingual classrooms. Connections to Brazil were established through the evocation of memories, allusions to loved ones physically there, and by claiming identities as Portuguese speakers. We argue that the children’s actions and narratives had the effect of disrupting the tenets of traditional nations: common culture, territory, and language.

Species-Level Resolution of Female Bladder Microbiota from 16S rRNA Amplicon Sequencing

Accurate species-level identification from culture-independent techniques is of importance for microbial niches that are less well characterized, such as that of the bladder. 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, a common culture-independent way to identify bacteria, is often critiqued for lacking species-level resolution. Here, we extensively evaluate classification schemes for species-level bacterial annotation of 16S amplicon data from bladder bacteria.

Interaction of Non-derivative Vocabulary of Smolensk Dialect and the Belarusian Language: Full Lexical Correspondences

Specific non-derivative nouns that are functioning in Smolensk dialect reveal a significant number of lexical parallels in the independent languageе structure of the contemporary Belarusian language. The analysis of these words is carried out in order to establish their status in two synchronous lexical and gram- matical systems for further clarification relating to the number of lexical parallels of different origins in Smolensk dialect. The subject of the study is the volume of lexical meaning of specific nonderivative nouns recorded in independent, but at the same time contact-located language formations, in one of which they have a regional status (Smolensk dialect), and in the other one they are included in the codified form of the standard language (the Belarusian language). The relevance of the study is explained by the complex history of the Russian-Belarusian borderland, which is reflected both in Smolensk dialect and in the Belarusian language, which has been developed on the dialect basis. The common material and spiritual culture typical for the dialects of the Russian-Belarus-ian borderland is a marker revealing the specifics of the region described. Due to the common culture, these conditionally distant language units regularly coincide in the volume of lexical meaning and demonstrate a stable distribution within lexical and semantic groups in each language formation at the present stage of its functioning.

Content of the concept of “ethnic painting”: articulation of the problem

This article analyzes the concept of &ldquo;ethnic painting&rdquo;, Russian and Western sources on the topic, as well as controversial approaches towards its interpretation. It is established that the Russian science avoids using the concept of &ldquo;ethnic painting&rdquo; to ambiguity of its content. The most commonly concepts in sphere are &ldquo;national art&rdquo;, &ldquo;ethnocultural manifestations&rdquo;, &ldquo;territorial-ethnic nature of painting&rdquo;, &ldquo;national peculiarities&rdquo;, and &ldquo;national distinctness of art schools&rdquo;. In Western literature, the concept of &ldquo;ethnic painting&rdquo; is attributed to both, folk art and professional art. Parallel is drawn between the concept of &ldquo;national culture&rdquo; and &ldquo;ethnic culture&rdquo;. The research is based on the painting of Circassians (Adyghe) of Russia and Turkey. Using the methods of comparative studies, comparative typology and art analysis, the article explores the works of contemporary Circassian painters of Turkey and Russia, revealing the specificity and universal characteristics of their paintings. The works of professional artists, which meet certain characteristics, should be referred to as &ldquo;ethnic painting&rdquo;. The author describes the key attributes and functions of plastic arts that allow classifying it as the concept of &ldquo;ethnic&rdquo;: 1) figurative characteristics (visualization of mythological and epic heroes and plotlines, ritual and common culture); 2) translation of ethnic mental characteristics and values; 3) design of ethnic identity and solidarity by means of painting; 4) introduction the art of painting not only to the elite, but other social classes as well; 5) usage of public instruments for proliferation and popularization of painting through education and enlightenment; 6) comprehension of ethnic art as a crucial element of national art; 7) development of ethnic art through various contaminants (ethnocultural content and modernist form or technique; modern content in the traditional genre or form).

Maritime Certainty and International Cooperation in the Klondike and Alaska Gold Rushes, 1896-1903

At the end of the nineteenth century the Arctic was a region of potential conflict. A primary cause of conflict is uncertainty. In the Arctic and near Arctic during the Klondike and Nome rushes, a degree of certainty came from two key sources: predictable US shipping and widely-respected Canadian law enforcement. A common culture among many newcomers to the region played an important role but, drawing on Abraham Maslow’s well-known “hierarchy of needs” theory, this paper argues that generally reliable shipping and generally respected law enforcement laid the foundation for a culture of cooperation described in numerous gold rush memoirs. À la fin du 19e siècle, l’Arctique était une région de conflits potentiels. L’incertitude constitue l’une des principales causes des conflits. Dans l’Arctique et les régions voisines de l’Arctique pendant les ruées vers le Klondike et Nome, un certain degré de certitude provenait de deux sources clés : la prévisibilité du transport maritime américain et le grand respect accordé à l’application de la loi au Canada. Bien que la culture commune à bon nombre des nouveaux arrivants dans la région ait joué un grand rôle, l’auteur s’appuie sur la théorie bien connue de la « hiérarchie des besoins » d’Abraham Maslow pour soutenir qu’un transport généralement fiable et une application de la loi généralement respectée ont jeté les bases d’une culture de collaboration décrite dans plusieurs mémoires de la ruée vers l’or.

Inspirasi Batik Tamarind dari Cerita rakyat

Batik is known not only for its beauty, but also for the values ​​it contains. This potential is very inspiring and gives an idea visualized into batik storytelling using the cold method of tamarin paste, a new approach that is more environmentally friendly. This technique has also been tested both domestically and abroad and has great potential for opportunities batik development with new ideas. An opportunity to preserve batik novelty that have no potential harass to traditional batik. This study applies the discussion of visual language to folklore theme batik works. In the earlier times, speech was common culture carried by elders to their children or grandchildren. Folktales in the form of legends, myths and fables are moral messages way conveyed in a friendly, fun but also educating with devotion. The theories and methods used to discuss two batik samples are taken from folklore which contains educational moral values. Based on a study of selected samples of batik works, it is known that the images or shapes on batik use the Space Time Flat (RWD) and Naturalist Perspective Moment Opname (NPM) systems simultaneously. Most of the depictions of motifs and shapes in batik still use the RWD system, although some forms also use NPM.

Kulturrelevans og menighetsutvikling

The article analyses the term cultural relevance and its importance for Church development. The questions are: What is the understanding of the term cultural relevance and what is the significance of the cultural factor for the understanding of the Church’s nature and task and consequently what are the consequences for the Church’s working methods and strategy? The principle issues are discussed through an analysis of the typology and five relational types of H. Richard Niebuhr’s book Christ & Culture, an evaluation of Jimmy Long’s five corresponding church types and Miroslav Volf’s ecclesiastical identity, including a theological discussion related to the paradigm change from modernism to postmodernism. The author defends Volf’s understanding of the church’s identity and nature and defines cultural relevance foremost as a new eschatological fellowship, expressing its own identity in the common culture. The task and goal of the church is to become an influencing church, i.e. by avoiding ideological pitfalls and enhancing all possibilities in the prevailing culture. In the practical part of the article, Jackson W. Carroll’s combined strategy of resistance and adjustment are defended after a presentation and evaluation of several church movements’ relation to culture. The concluding part of the article defends the use of the combined strategy as the best way to become an influencing church, and is closed by four practical-theological implications for church development.

Genre and style priorities of accordion performance in traditional common culture of USA

The relevance of the study is determined by the wide popularity of accordion in various genres and styles of American folk music, significant achievements of American accordionists in preserving and developing performing traditions in accordance with the ethnocultural specifics of a particular region of the country and presentation of creative achievements of famous American folk groups in the world music space, as well as by lack of the studies on this issue in the field of musicology in Ukraine. The aim of the study is to define the genre and style priorities of accordion performance in the traditional common culture of Americans, highlight the regional specifics of styles and genres of American folk music, in the reproduction of which the accordion is directly involved, as well as describe textural, articulatory and picking, metric and rhythmic features of playing the instrument. The methodology. The methodological basis of the study is the interaction of scientific approaches, among which an important place is occupied by historical, cultural, systemic, structural and functional, musicological methods. The results. In the traditional common culture of Americans, the performance on the accordion is presented quite diversely in terms of the instruments, distribution areas, genre, and style palette of music performed. Historical, sociocultural and geopolitical factors, ethnocultural influences, multicultural tendencies determined the regional specificity of the instruments. The Cajun accordion, the diatonic button accordion, and the chromatic piano accordion have gained considerable popularity in the traditional common culture of various regions of the United States. Each of them took leading positions in the reproduction of a certain musical style: Cajun accordion — Cajun and Zydeco, diatonic button accordion — Cojunto, chromatic piano accordion — Zydeco. The button (diatonic or chromatic) and piano accordions were mainly used in the instrumental composition of dance music groups, in particular in the genre of polka, depending on the region with the corresponding ethnic specificity. The accordion performance vividly embodies the genre and style features of American folk music in the context of its historical dynamics and capability of artistic expression, including intonation expressiveness and characteristic techniques of playing, inherent in a certain design model of the instrument. The topicality of the study is to reproduce the genre and style specifics of accordion performance in the traditional common culture of Americans.