Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

From primitivism to ethnic arts 143
‘primitive’ today has modern ambitions and enters into the Museum <strong>of</strong> Modern Art, with
all the intellectual power <strong>of</strong> a modern genius, and tells William Rubin to fuck <strong>of</strong>f with his
primitivism: you can no longer define, sir, classify or categorize me. I’m no longer your
bloody objects in the British Museum. I’m here right in front <strong>of</strong> you, in the flesh and
blood <strong>of</strong> a modern artist. If you want to talk about me, let us talk. BUT NO MORE OF
YOUR PRIMITIVIST RUBBISH.
I did promise you that I would not go into an angry rhetoric, and it is unfair also to
pick on an individual, particularly William Rubin whom I have never met. He probably is
a very nice guy; and I should perhaps apologize to him for my rudeness if I ever meet
him. However, the institutional authority that he represents exists throughout the western
world, and I do not see why the anger <strong>of</strong> the ‘primitive’ against this authority has no
legitimacy given the dialectics <strong>of</strong> what this authority has perpetuated all over the world.
<strong>The</strong> anger is not an inability to communicate on ‘civilized’ terms or within an
intellectual framework <strong>of</strong> modern cultural practices. On the contrary, it is the inability <strong>of</strong>
the institutions to recognize and respond to the modern aspirations <strong>of</strong> all peoples
irrespective <strong>of</strong> race, colour, or creed that has created a confrontational situation. This may
not be a very happy situation, but that is what is happening in our contemporary world. I
do not want to take you around the world. This would complicate the matter. However, I
will draw your attention to what is happening in Britain (in Bristol, Liverpool,
Birmingham, Southall, Brixton, etc.) 18 which, in my view, is the failure <strong>of</strong> this society to
come to terms with the aspirations and demands for equality for all people in this society.
This failure is also noticeable in liberal scholarship and art institutions, not that similar
consequences <strong>of</strong> street riots are being foreseen here. <strong>The</strong>re is a general lack <strong>of</strong> will to face
up to the reality <strong>of</strong> post-war Britain. <strong>The</strong>re is a lack <strong>of</strong> will to listen to those who had no
voice during the colonial era but who are now part <strong>of</strong> a ‘free’ and modern society and
want to speak and establish a meaningful dialogue across racial and cultural boundaries.
If you had read my correspondence in my book Making Myself Visible, 19 or/and
elsewhere, you would know what I mean by all this. What one <strong>of</strong>ten faces is the brick
wall <strong>of</strong> silence, arrogance, and self-righteousness.
I am not suggesting here that there has been no awareness <strong>of</strong> the problem, or that
nothing whatsoever has changed. But what is being done generally and <strong>of</strong>ficially is
highly objectionable. Right from the very day African/Asian peoples set their feet on this
soil (my concern here is only with the post-war period), the whole <strong>of</strong>ficial machinery was
set in motion to deal with them. Since then special research units have been set up under
various organizations for the sole purpose <strong>of</strong> studying their traditional customs, beliefs,
behaviour, values, and what not, and also what are called ethnic cultural artefacts; all
lumped together and labelled ethnographical material. I am not an anthropologist or a
sociologist, but it is not difficult to see what this game is all about.
<strong>The</strong> establishment, if not this society in general, is surprised and amazed that these
people, who have been given the privilege <strong>of</strong> coming to this country, should now demand
more. <strong>The</strong> ‘primitive’ demanding equality and self-representation within a modern
society is unthinkable. <strong>The</strong>re must be something wrong with them. <strong>The</strong>y don’t know
what they want. We know what they want.
<strong>The</strong> problem is that these people are uprooted—say the experts <strong>of</strong> the race relations
industry—from their own cultures, from their own traditions, and as a result they are
feeling alienated and frustrated in this highly complex technological society. We shall