#poc discrimination

[this-is-internoirism]

So many of you treat intersex POC like absolute dogshit and then don't take any accountability whatsoever. I need you to take a step back.

[love-the-little-wonders]

Netflix’s Blown Away Judges Lack Cultural Lens to Appreciate Non-Eurocentric Art

I was really excited to find that Netflix had made a TV competition for glass blowing but as the show progressed, I found myself becoming angrier and more frustrated with the judges’ evaluations for the contestant, Momoko Schafer. She is a Japanese American artist who from the start made it clear that she would be creating pieces inspired by her culture. 

The first challenge was to draw inspiration from a photograph that held meaning to them. For her it was a picture of her and her family. She took inspiration from her family and culture and made a wishing Daruma.

Daruma dolls are round traditional Japanese dolls that are used for wishing. You fill in the left eye and make your wish. When your wish is fulfilled, you fill in the other eye. 

Her piece perfectly captures her wish to succeed in the show while also reflecting her culture and setting the tone for her future works of what we will see.

It wasn’t until the 3rd episode that we see the judges’ lack of cultural awareness when they began to critique her piece for the light fixtures challenge. For this challenge, Momo created a whimsical chochin obake nightlight. 

Chochin obake are paper lantern ghosts that are depicted with its tongue sticking out. 

Momo’s piece seems pretty lantern-esque to me

The main judge Katherine was harsh on her criticism saying that it was hard to tell that it was a lantern, that it wasn’t skillfully made, and that it looked more like a beehive. Momo was thrown by the judge’s initial assumption that her fireballs were wings. Momo explained that the fireballs would be more prominent at night when casting shadows and would accentuate the bands of the lanterns.

Katherine went on to tell Momo that the pieces on the back threw off the design and the purple on the top and bottom of the lantern didn’t go with the color pallet. 

It was hard to watch their critique knowing that they didn’t understand the levels of depths that Momo’s piece held. Momo was rightfully furious with the judges. she shared in her confessional that she thought it was inappropriate to tell her as an artist what colors to use and that the judges had made some “bold assumptions” about her piece. 

I was hoping that this would be a one off thing but when critiquing her work, the judges kept missing the cultural context with her pieces. 

She went home on the 6th challenge “Pop Art Blowup” which annoyed me to no end. Out of all of the pieces submitted, hers screamed pop art the most (IMO). Momo was given a razor as inspiration for the challenge and so she decided to pay homage to world renowned Japanese artist,Yayoi Kusama, and her use of polka dots for which she is known as the “princess of polka dots”.

When people think of the pop art movement, they usually only think of Andy Warhol, but Yayoi Kusama was just as important for the pop art movement as he was. 

When having her piece evaluated, Momo explained her use of polka dots, color, and bubble shape of her piece was inspired by Yayoi Kusama. One judge mentioned that he was familiar with the artist but the other two either did not know who that was or did not think it was significant enough. Katherine said that she did not see enough of the razor in the piece and that it was lost in translation. Ironic 

Momo was immediately my favorite contestant from the start and I was looking forward to seeing her advance more in the competition. Though she only had 5 years of experience under her belt, she managed to hold her ground working alongside glassblower veterans. If she had gone home on the decanter and wine glass challenge, I would have understood. Her wine glass and decanter weren’t as strong as the others and that would have been that. But she was sent home on a challenge that she struck out of the park, and that was infuriating because the judges lacked the cultural perspective that went with her work to appreciate it.