Lady Gaga’s new video clip “911,” Victoria Secret model Stella Maxwell’s photos in daraz for Vogue Russia from 2015 and Kanye West’s Yeezy brand runners named “Ararat” have all recently sparked polarizing opinions on social media. Misappropriation! Appreciation! I’m not sure! represent the general tenor of Armenians’ reactions to seeing their culture in non-Armenian media. If the medium is the message, then who is the primary audience for the message? The cacophony in responses to these appearances of “Armenianness” is symptomatic of the complexity the phenomenon of “culture” embodies in its perpetual relation to the jumble of history, ideas, experiences, power matrices and globalization. But the fact that something seems rotten in the state of certain “representations” ought to make us question any given referentiality.
The historically-attuned mind, aware of Armenia’s centuries-old struggle with colonialism, should participate in the discourse of otherness, especially when the intersections are between the culture of a world power and Armenian culture, which unfortunately still dwells in the periphery. Members of marginalized cultures, due to their lack of representation in the supposed “center” of the world stage, are more likely to undermine or even question problematic instances of cultural appropriation. As an underrepresented culture, despite our cultural wealth, we Armenians quickly revel in fleeting appearances of our flag, sacred mountain, national dress and other forms of display in the international arena, and often feel content with a few crumbs in cameo. It is necessary to think about questions such as, who “owns” culture, what constitutes cultural appropriation, and where one can draw the line, however blurry, between the latter and cultural appreciation, all of which boil down to ethics.
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Honestly, this made me chuckle a bit. Armenia has serious name recognition problem. Most people have never heard about the country or its culture. We have to be really grateful to Gaga for doing this. Besides, the video is more like an homage to a handful of surrealist filmmakers, mostly Prajanov, not the country of Armenia. The video will end up being watched by hundreds of millions of people from all over the world. Hope we will see more of this stuff.
Sure, some attention is better than no attention. But when you’re mega rich and worth millions (like Lady Gaga) or over a billion (like Kanye), maybe you shouldn’t be the one benefitting the most from using that culture – especially when its people have been historically deprived of attention and any of its benefits.
Great article, Arpi. Armenians should be benefitting a lot more from the use or “honouring” of their culture. It’s encouraging to see more involvement and consultation these days, which is heaps better than it used to be, but it’s still problematic. Often, people with no voice or power are thrilled when they’re suddenly given a sliver of attention. Often, they’re so used to getting nothing, they’re grateful for any crumps and scraps they do get. And people outside the appropriated culture often feel they should be grateful.
Firstly, id like to say thank you for writing this article. I for one, was not impressed with lady Gaga’s video. I grew up like most other Armenian-Americans getting very excited about any minimal mainstream acknowledgement of our culture but i no longer feel this way. Everywhere I travel outside of the US people know who Armenians are. Does Armenia have a “name recognition problem”? i don’t think so, Perhaps it’s America that has a geography problem.
Of course i celebrate the accomplishments of Armenians and i am pleased when they achieve wide acclaim. But I did not find this video complimentary or exciting, In fact i was incredible upset by it.
Also I think importantly I have to point out that in 2015 Lady Gaga took 2 million dollars from Azerbaijian for a performance at the “European Games”. This event was dubbed a showpiece for international media and despite public outcry denouncing the regime and calling for her to reconsider she went ahead anyway.
—Lady Gaga is notorious for ripping off other artists and a quick google search will reveal the number of lawsuits this has resulted in. she has built her career out of it. As you say- is it ripping off if you cite the artist as she did in the video? as you indicated in this article its not so clear cut- and you also mention the ethical intent. Now, what is the ethics of taking an original work completely out of context and slapping advertisements for cell phone companies on it?? It is unquestionable to me that paradjanov himself- who spent years in prison for his critical attitudes of the hegemonic political system he worked under, would NOT have endorsed this kind of hyper-capitalistic use of his work.
Another grievance – this film is a biography, albeit a very abstract one- how many western viewers are familiar with that? i have met many non-armenians that have really loved this film over the years and they are all vey excited to share their appreciation of it with me but exactly 0 of them knew who Sayat Nova was or even realized it was a biography at all. What about Gaga’s video does anything except further this misconcepton of this film simply being a crazy and absurd assault on the senses? Nothing. the subject of this video is of course- just lady gaga. how boring.
I think its also Interesting to note that in none of the discussion of this video on social media has anyone even mentioned how completely mediocre the music is. The visuals ARE the video and it is visually dependent on the original work. Personally, i don’t think just peppering in some Armenian designers checks the box for appropriation insurance. Certianly Gagas’ advisors are familiar with cancel culture and understand the potential misstep it would have been not to include them.
In the past 10 years ive whitnessed Such an amazing proliferation of Armenian culture within the diaspora and through the internet. Mostly through our younger generation who are free from the burden of “assimilation” and more acutely aware the emergent critical perspectives towards colonialism/white supremacy.
Parajanov should be sacred to us, He is a rare example of trans-caucasian And queer artistic identity and his legacy should be preserved with care. I think as a group we can progress past this excitement when the dominant culture throws us little crumbs of recognition.
Thanks for writing
@rogue_states
Is the second to last paragraph of the article serious or meant to be a satirical caricature of the way some people on the ivory towers of the world think?
May I remind Everyone that Rousseau loved to appear in Armenian garb. People are free to engage in transcultural exchanges. If anyone complains but is unable to obtain “gain de cause,” shows his weakness. Let’s move on; let’s stop dwelling in the osdt. Armenia’s future is what should count. All kinds of passéisme is a big mistake.
Instead of being concerned that non-Armenians found something of interest/value to them in Armenian culture/art to create their own artistic venue to present to the world at large we should be encouraging/supporting Armenians to create “art/culture” that reflects “Armenian Themes” (other than Genocide) to present to the world.
I think both of these things are related to each other. The lack of encouragement within Armenian communities in propelling narratives that exist outside of the traditional canon (and thus diversify and enrich our culture) is part of the reason Armenian culture exists in a bubble, and why many American-Armenians weren’t aware of Parajanov’s art until it was presented to them in pastiche form by Lady Gaga. Is that not problematic? She used an ode to ancestral and generational trauma — cutting up visual elements to present it as representative of mental health — without a good understanding of how that fits into Armenian culture beyond the mere aesthetic. We need to do better, be more inclusive, and teach all aspects of Armenian identity besides the outdated norms or those that found commonalities on the Armenian Genocide.
It’s rather offensive that a non-Armenian New York singer/songwriter/record producer/actress (such as Lady Gaga) would attempt to take elements of the Armenian culture and include them in her sleazy music video, for her own benefit. This is certainly something that we Armenians should never have the slightest bit of appreciation for.
On the other hand, for those Armenians out there (Hayastantsis, Artsakhtsis, Javakhktsis, Lebanese-Armenians, Persian-Armenians, Syrian-Armenians, Iraqi-Armenians, Turkish-Armenians, Russian-Armenians, Armenian-Americans, etc.) who really love our Armenian culture as well as our modern-day Armenian music, you should check out DJ Anna Pani’s “Armenian Party Mix” music video. That’s certainly a hell of a lot more than what Lady Gaga can possibly offer in terms of Armenian culture.
So, by that logic, no one should be acting in films because they haven’t experienced what they are portraying on screen. And never should a person in foreign culture show appreciation to other culture. Interesting.
From what I understand, cultural appropriation is defined as when the dominant culture in a society takes something from a non-dominant culture – usually an oppressed or disenfranchised one – and treats it as its own. The question is whether Lady Gaga used “The Color of Pomegranates” just to make money or to express something about the culture.
Just as soon would this perspective impose power hierarchical bureaucracies to constrain the works of artists and deem by humorless bureaucratic committee exactly what cultural elements, political themes, and ideas can be explored.
Precisely the hellish Soviet condition that Parajanov and every other painter, director, playwright, and poet of the USSR found themselves in.
First, if you really watch 911 or even know just a tiny bit of Lady Gaga’s discography, you won’t have that conclusion of her speaking for you or any social groups. She’s always asking everyone to embrace their OWN VOICE regardless of what backgrounds you are from. So, seeing the above conclusion truly makes me laugh (sorry not sorry). And I know Gaga will be unbothered by this with her already clear referencing to ‘The Color of Pomegranate’ clearly stated word-by-word in her music video. What’s more, that video is the reason why an Asian uni student like me is looking into the Armenian culture.
***SO CUI BONO? THE ARMENIAN CULTURE IS.*** By getting people from different walks of life to be interested in the richness of its culture…
Late to this discussion, but here goes…
My only adverse reaction to this Lady Gaga issue is what only one other commenter has mentioned- her performance in Azerbaijan.
Anyone who legitimizes such a regime is suspect. That’s why I have an issue with Gaga. Likewise Kobe Bryant and his shilling for Turkish Airlines.
There is an unlikely possibility here (emphasis on unlikely). Maybe she was trying to atone for her Baku appearance. In this case, it’s necessary for her to say so.
Otherwise, how we can control/regulate use/reference to cultural pieces by other “artists” is beyond me and probably not worth spending too much time on, except perhaps to criticize any instances of such that we deem Armenian-ly inappropriate.