Is Appropriation Appropriate?

Understanding Appropriation

Australian Indigenous Artist: Lin Onus/Hokusai

Source:http://chantellesthoughts.blogspot.com/2011/10/lin-onus.html

Lin Onus creates artworks using appropriation and a mixture of Aboriginal painting techniques as well as Western imagery to bring forth his position on Identity. Lin Onus was born in Melbourne in 1948. He was exposed from a young age to the art world as he worked in his father’s arts and crafts shop. It wasn’t until later in his life did he embrace his Aboriginal heritage by travelling to an Aborignal community where he met a man named Jack Wunuwun in Maningrida. Jack was concerned that there wasn’t enough awareness or exposure to Indigenous art in the South and therefore adopted Lin as a son and began to teach him their culture and traditions. In his art Lin combines Western and Aboriginal imagery to play with stereotypes and art history. This technique is displayed in his piece ‘Michael and I are just slipping down the pub for a minute’ 1993.