Tyson Robertson | Privilege and Tourism at the World Trade Center Memorial

Inspired by my first experience of visiting the World Trade Center Memorial site in Lower Manhattan, I staged a performance at the site. I was struck by how cultural appropriation and tourism paralleled each other. In both instances, people have the desire to bring themselves as close to the "authentic" as possible, but ultimately the very nature of the act makes them inauthentic.

I thought about what it meant to be a "tourist" of culture, or to "appropriate" experience. For this performance I used elements of tourism and appropriation and had self-portaits of myself taken in front of the memorial.

Privilege and Tourism at the World Trade Center Memorial
Gold Teeth, Coke Bottle, 7/11 Snap Back purchased at 7/11 in Sanford, FL that Trayvon Martin visit before he was murdered, Performance, 2013

Inspired by my first experience of visiting the World Trade Center Memorial site in Lower Manhattan, I staged a performance at the site. I was struck by how cultural appropriation and tourism paralleled each other. In both instances, people have the desire to bring themselves as close to the "authentic" as possible, but ultimately the very nature of the act makes them inauthentic. I thought about what it meant to be a "tourist" of culture, or to "appropriate" experience. For this performance I used elements of tourism and appropriation and had self-portaits of myself taken in front of the memorial.