Cultural appropriation

["Shane Wilson Sculpture" <shane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I viewed the work in question, and, sorry to say, it does appear to be
influenced by northern indigenous art. Though I can certainly appreciate how
that might come as a hurtful comment from a jury of peers, they seem to have
spoken the truth. Sometimes processes that seem deliberately unfair are
really just doing the best job possible under difficult circumstances. I
have served on juries before and without exception it is not an easy
process. Always there are applications chosen and applications rejected -
and even though it is almost never personal, the applicants who are rejected
see it as a negative judgement. Canadian attitudes toward cultural
appropriation are a little more stringent than American - it is just not
done. The one exception might be to acknowledge the influence of indigenous
art in one's own - then the viewing public can appreciate the artist's
contribution to the form (much like Picasso with African art). The
difference between Picasso (African art) or Van Gogh (Japanese art) is that
they acknowledged their source.