For Ponger, the subjective realities and diversity of those she portrays (including herself) are an element at the centre of a work
which is about the images of
the various cultures - or in the case of the portrait of Ponger herself, the historical reference to her own culture - and should not be confused
with the cultures themselves.
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Superficially a matter of choice, it is also very much a question of power. As white Western Europeans they, and we, have the possibility of externalising our fantasies and wishes, making them real and having
them, if not accepted, then at least tolerated. As a thought experiment: What would we feel about a real Ethiopian, Jamaican or Peruvian if they dressed
as a Scotsman, an Englishman or an Austrian? For us, non-whites are not only representatives of their culture, but first and foremost, their skin colour,
even when born in Europe and carrying an Austrian, English or French passport. They are made to carry our (cultural) baggage again, imposed on
them by the history of racial hierarchies derived from stereotypes, from visual observation, automatic (false) categorisation and ranking.
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