Allochtoon – A Series of Sculptures by Ziv Ayal

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Ziv Ayal, who lives and teaches art in Israel, is the creator of these fantastically-bizarre sculptures. His “Allochtoon” series perfectly captures the pathos and overwhelming sense of alienation, that is wrought upon by not belonging, or being ostracized against in an environment or country.

Snip from the artist’s site:

Allochtoon – (Plural: Allochtonen; Dutch) In Greek: Allos means ‘other’; chthon means ‘land’ or ‘place’.

The literal meaning of Allochtoon: "Originating from another country". Allochtoon is the opposite of  Autochtoon, literally meaning: "Originating from this country" (i.e. ethnic Dutch). In the Netherlands, "Allochtoon" is commonly used towards immigrants and their descendants. The official meaning of Allochtoon is anyone who has a parent, grandparent, or grand-grandparent which was not born in the country.   You are a first generation Allochtoon if you live in the Netherlands but was born abroad, and at least one of your parents were also born abroad. You are a second-generation Allochtoon if you were born in the Netherlands, but at least one of your parents were born abroad. If you were born abroad, but both your parents were born in the Netherlands,  you are an Autochtoon.

So different from the official term, in popular speech, people refer to a person as Allochtoon only if that person is an obvious immigrant, or if his appearance or behaviour is distinctively not ‘traditional’ Dutch.

Allochthon – A term in Geology used to describe large block of rock which is not located in its’ original place of formation.  Sometimes, an Allochthon has a ‘hole’ in it. Then, you can look through the Allochthon, and see the  Autochthon.

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