American Princess

Is Appropriation a crime? It's a human characteristic to take symbols and things from other cultures and recycle them into present trends.

It is the case of Asians adopting the western dressing code, or Nutella; the delicious Italian chocolate spread I grew up with, which has now become an American product like pizza and pasta.

However, Cultural Appropriation becomes a cause of distress if what we choose to appropriate originates from a disenfranchised culture. For a disenfranchised group seeing its civilization manipulated by other cultures must feel like touching an open wound that never healed.

But is it legitimate to prevent freedom of expression because it offends someone's sensibilities?

Through this piece, I wanted to incorporate a few American symbols such as the flag, religion, money, origins, and chains. Maybe there's no such thing as liberty or freedom of expression. Reasonably we might believe that we're free if we can choose to put feathers on our head as the Native Americans did, but in the end, we are all captive to the system. We are only as free as the system allows us to be.