Black is the New White

This week’s fashion interest lies in the controversial shoot taken by French Vogue magazine, while the global community is moving towards a more dynamic and accepting approach towards different races, cultures and religions, it is fascinating to explore how one shoot can potentially abolish the harmony that we believe exists.

Further more it is interesting to note that fashion, models and photographers have the potential to create this heated topic and move modelling and fashion from the magazines and bulletin boards and onto the field of social and political study.  This takes fashion out of the back bench and places it in the center of the spot light, what is interesting is the Sydney Morning Herald’s description of Vogue magazine, states that the magazine is renowned for its attention seeking spreads. Whether this is true is arguable, I would frankly argue otherwise as Vogue isn’t specific to attracting attention, but effective in being innovative, creative and at times pushing against mainstream ideas of fashion, their work is usually deep enough to stand in a gallery.

Thus the media in this instance shouldn’t be so quick to jump to the conclusion that vogue was being insensitive, ignorant and politically incorrect, as their very work is made to create different perceptions of the one product and most times their agenda is not to offend anyone.

Similarly to the Hey Hey its Saturday stunt which was in the media regarding a very similar act, news.com goes into depth about the matter, Australians must remember that we are not American and our culture is our own, meaning not just because one thing may be interpreted as offensive or insulting must be adopted by our own culture. Australian’s are known for their easy going nature, sense of humor and unique adaption of ideas. To have that stunt appear to be a racist appropriation is the equivalent of not knowing the national anthem – that is being so un-Australian.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26181031-10229,00.html

The hey hey its Saturday stunt should have been watched from within an Australian perspective and if it was contextually analyzed the extract would make perfect sense  and not appear to be racially discriminative. As many people state, if a black person was to paint their face white that would undeniably be either a racist act, an act of vilification or for the purposes of making a statement. Yet the painting of a white person as a balck person could be a veneration of beauty. Some of the world’s most beautiful and successful models have been black models, must we mention Naomi Campbell who is in her 40s and still one of Victoria’s Secrets best kept secrets. Tara banks who is now not only successful for her incredible modelling shoots, but for her America’s Next Top Model show that has been popular across the world to the extent that countries now have their own competitions, this includes Australia and New Zealaand.

The American President is now an African America, must society still stand within the shadow of the past and not endeavor to move into the future. The more society clings onto this notion of sensitivity and cautiousness when mentioning blacks or creating art through different ideas, the more we revert back to 18th, 19th and 2th century teachings about cultural differences, racism and racial segregation. Australia should lead the world in its examples of harmonious co-existence with many different cultures and races, if farmers can co-exist with Aboriginals through pastoral land leases, then the world is far behind if it can’t co-exist artistically, culturally and socially.

Nonetheless it’s not the entire art and fashion community who is offended by the white model painted black, it is an exclusive few that have shunned this masterpiece, including the media who in this case are looking for any means to create a public outrage. Rather than looking to the deeper value of the image, some have taken it on face value if that even, and some how pointed out why it was so politically incorrect.

What made these images even less offensive was that French Vogue was using its culture, Renaissance creations – meaning props, photography and effects were meant to transcend the image back to a 14^th/15^th century film still. This is a mere appropriation, in essence a work of art with the likes of artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman who have all aimed to appropriate artworks to make them more relevant today. Vogue’s aim was to most probably paint an image of what didn’t happen back then, meaning having black person’s in the role of a white person, stating a fact isn’t offensive especially a fact that existed centuries ago. Isn’t it high time people understood our history, so that when artworks appear that venerate the blacks rather than dismiss them, the message can be interpreted correctly and not mistakenly confused for a racist act.

If we look to the similarities it is clear that Vogue was not making a racist statement, but rather appropriating its photography and making a piece of art – something that is paramount to the Vogue manifesto.

Jezebel an American blog, goes through audience discussion regarding the severity and impact of the image – Jezebel discussion

The upper image is the Alforini artwork, a popular painting created during the 14th Century, if you look  closely between that and the neighbouring image of Lara Stone, the Dutch model, you can see similarities in the props and style of both images.