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Abstract

After Greenberg's famous analysis of kitsch in terms of aesthetics, Art critic James Gaywood, reasserted the question of kitsch in terms of market. (Gaywood 1997) Here Picasso and cultural appropriation were supplanted by Marcel Duchamp and the readymade. The products of art became completely non-native on all fronts, the world so reflected was postcultural. In that sense, cultural appropriation was no longer an aesthetic, it was a commodity for production, and as much as possible, production by machines. The form of such commodity, of Pacific Islander cultures, was highly variable, from a 17th century English play by John Clarke, to Hollywood films beginning with Robert Flaherty’s Moana, and F.W. Murnau’s Tabu, to household utensils like the tiki mug on sale on the internet. [excerpt]

DOI

10.5642/lux.201301.21

COinS