What is Cross-Cultural Dialogue?
How can contemporary art contribute to this conversation?
Changing times often create space for reflection - In this article we reflect on how contemporary art, continues to discuss the narrative of ‘Cross-Cultural Dialogue’ and why more than ever, this discourse needs to be shared, introducing two prominent voices.
Artists Sudarshan Shetty and Robert Jahnke.
Globalisation has made us feel, our 21st century planet Earth has become smaller, and technology has surely served as a tool to expand dialogue between cultures and communities across the planet. On the other hand, it has also proven to be a complex phenomenon as we see how hard it is to co-exist as individuals with personal perceptions in a global context.
Indeed, cross-cultural dialogue can be a place of tension between different ways of thinking and doing. It is essential for building collectively, learning from one another and ultimately becoming aware of our shared human condition. It helps us create spaces of empathy, collaboration and solidarity between seemingly distant cultural contexts.
“Things can be opposites but also be mutually inclusive within one same space of experience”
Sudarshan Shetty, untitled, 2013, ceramic, wood
Sudrashan Shetty, Untitled, 2014 Wood
Mumbai based artist Sudarshan Shetty once said “Things can be opposites but also be mutually inclusive within one same space of experience”. Shetty who has become one of the leading artists in contemporary art out of India, exemplifies the affluence of his cross-cultural training. From studying the tradition of British portraiture, to Bauhaus architecture and ancient Indian art, Sudarshan Shetty’s pieces bridge histories, territories, art movements and psychological spaces. Through the juxtaposition of a variety of objects and materials from different sources and times, he weaves together multiple faces of tradition with a globalised existence, revealing the importance of “working from diversity, and creating meeting points in the process of making”.
All cultures have carried their own heritage, traditions, and history into the contemporary world, and it is not without intense struggle that they still negotiate their place inside our current collective puzzle. Being of German-Irish-Samoan-Maori heritage, Robert Jahnke, one of New Zealand’s leading Maori contemporary artists, explores these negotiations through a historical focus and a political edge. His installations often reflect on colonialism, the social and political concerns that Maori people face, and how intercultural exchange assembles different pieces in conjunction, regardless of their inherent tensions.
Robert Jahnke, Nga Manu a Maui: The birds of Maui I 2009 Lacquer on stainless steel
Through their work, both Shetty and Jahnke show the potential contemporary art has for creating a global community, and how cross-cultural dialogue is a transformative tool of thought. It doesn’t only expose political dynamics and power structures, but also makes us question, who is speaking? Who is listening? Who can get their voice heard? Who remains silent?
Robert Jahnke, Nga Manu a Maui: The birds of Maui I-IV 2015
“Dialogue can triumph over discord, that diversity is a universal virtue and that the peoples of the world are far more united by their common fate than they are divided by their separate identities.”
Contemporary art has the responsibility of creating platforms for a greater diversity of voices to exist in the art world. It also has the power to mirror and reflect on issues that exist outside of itself. Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan once stated that “Dialogue can triumph over discord, that diversity is a universal virtue and that the peoples of the world are far more united by their common fate than they are divided by their separate identities”. As we witness the forces of hate speech, violence and intolerance taking over politics and human rights. Inclusive and critical discourses in contemporary art can work as a counterforce in a world that seems to be closing in on us.