The New Sun Conference Analysis

The New Sun conference was interesting to me for a variety of reason, the most important of which was that it humanised issues that in my personal experience I have only heard in passing. It gave these issues of cultural appropriation and identity struggle a human face. It is so easy in this world to ignore harsh truths that do not directly affect your own experience, but this conference shone a light on those truths.
Alethea Arnquq-Baril’s presentation her passion for storytelling through film was very interesting. As an art historian, I couldn’t help but be reminded of art historic definitions of modernity and it’s the problematic idea of primitivism that was inherent in it. I was reminded of this because Arnaquq-Baril’s work reminded me of the notion of salvage anthropology in the 20th century. Anthropologists felt that native culture and native traditions were dying out. As a result, there a rush to record these traditions and ways of life before they became extinct. What struck me as ironic was the fact that the same people who rushed …show more content…
It was also interesting to hear an artist discuss, in-depth, their own works. As an art historian who prefers the art of people long dead, this was a really interesting experience. I liked when Houle talked about art being emotionally tied to the artist. He intimated that it was it was like an internal experience being given a visually manifested. Using words to describe a feeling or an internal experience is hard. Some things cannot be put into words. This link between the emotion biography and art is something that art history of modern art is built upon. His recounting of his experience with forced separation from his family after contracting Tuberculosis was useful for my presentation on Oviloo Tunnillie. She too contracted Tuberculosis and was forcefully quarantined away from her family in a