KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS CULTURE Rooted in Progress REDLINE CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER SHOWCASES INDIGENOUS PRIDE AND ANCESTRY. BY KATRINA LEIBEE “I was told a mural is only considered paint on a wall in the preservation world,” says Lucha Martínez de Luna, a Chicana ar- chaeologist and activist. “How are we going to protect something that they don’t even recognize what it is?” Martínez de Luna is the director of the Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project, which she co-founded to save historic murals painted by Chicano/a/x artists that depict signifi cant parts of Colorado history, such as Spanish colonization in the Americas as well as discrimination and forced migration. Founding the mural project was a natural progression for Martínez de Luna. With a lifelong interest in history and the art and artifacts that represent it, she has worked on many archaeological projects in the United States and southern Mexico. She recalls how in 2012, she began an excavation with La Providencia Archaeological Project in Chiapas, Mexico. Her team discovered a large ceremonial complex there, and ar- chaeologists have been seeking artifacts at that site ever since. The Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project has even caught the eye of the Na- tional Trust for Historic Preservation, which included the project’s murals in its list of America’s eleven most endangered places in 2022. The project has mapped Chicanx murals throughout Colorado, and it works with the State Historic Preservation Offi ce to determine how they can be protected and preserved. Martínez de Luna will be talking about the Chicano/a/x Murals of Colorado Project during her key- note address at RedLine Contem- porary Art Center’s 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art & Conversa- tion summit on August 12 and 13. The summit kicks off RedLine’s 2022-2023 exhibition program, col- lectively titled Roots Radical: An Ex- ploration Into Indigenous Ancestry and Experience. RedLine has been creating yearly 16 exhibition themes since 2014. Last year’s theme was Afrofuturism + Beyond, which used art to imagine how Black in- dividuals can exist in a future that is more positive than a racist and oppressive past and present. And now, Roots Radical will explore Indigenous displacement and disenfranchisement, as well as how perceptions of Native people are often created through a white narrative. The two-day summit will comprise performances, art ex- hibits, talks and workshops sur- rounding Indigenous culture, ancestry, experience and issues, as well as food from Tocabe and other local restaurants. It’s just the beginning of Roots Radical’s 2022- 2023 program, which will include multiple events throughout the coming year, including Studded Sash Belt, an exhibition taking place in January and February that will showcase Indigenous fashion designers, an Indigenous mural showcase that will happen in the summer, and more. RedLine executive direc- tor Louise Martorano says that this year’s theme was inspired by a conversation she had with artist Gregg Deal, a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe, about the relationship between punk-rock music and Indigenous identity. “RedLine’s annual pro- gram series are always inspired by artists in our community,” Martorano explains. The name Roots Radical, she adds, came from the concept that a person’s roots can be lost or damaged through colonization. “Oftentimes when you are colonized, those roots are injured and torn apart and severed...be- cause of systems of racism and oppression that have happened to Indigenous peo- ples,” Martorano says. “Punk rock, as many an anarchist. Don’t know what I want, but I know how to get it,”’ Deal says. Deal’s keynote speech will address the themes in his art as well as how stereotypes can in- fl uence what people expect to see in Indigenous art. His ex- hibit will be one of two on view at the summit; the other is The Red Road Project, a combination of pictures and words by artists Danielle SeeWalker and Carlotta Cardana, who explore the experi- ence of Native Americans in the 21st century. SeeWalker will also host a panel on the high rate of missing- person cases and homicides in Indigenous communities. She and her fellow panelists cam- paigned to get SB22-150 signed into law in June, establishing an offi ce to ensure that the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs is involved in such cases. “When you’re dealing with people that live on sovereign lands, the local police cannot step in and inves- tigate; it has to be the FBI,” See- Walker notes. “There’s this whole complication of jurisdiction.” Under federal law, the FBI Gregg Deal uses old comic book images to recast Indigenous stereotypes. Lucha Martínez de Luna. other music genres are when they fi rst hit our scene, [is considered] radical because they’re saying things that are anti-system and against authority.” That anti-authoritarian theme is ex- plored at the summit through the works of Deal, who is also a keynote speaker. His exhibition, End of Silence: A Punk Survey of Gregg Deal, takes illustrations from the 1953 comic book White Indian and re-illustrates them to erase the “white savior” stereotype they play into. “Indigenous people are either winning in these images or they’re standing and saying something strong, which is sort of the antith- esis of the stereotype,” Deal says. “As an Indigenous artist and as a Native artist, it’s sort of rooted in that nar- rative of trying to fl ip the script a bit, and reimagining what those spaces would look like without the histori- cal disenfranchisement and racism that goes along with it.” Alongside the illustrations are lyrics from punk-rock songs that discuss disenfranchisement. “There’s a piece from the Sex Pistols called ‘Anarchy in the U.K.,’ and the image is of a Native person punch- ing a priest. It says, ‘I’m an Anti-christ, I’m must investigate crimes on Na- tive American reservations, which can result in some cases not being investigated promptly or important information going missing, SeeWalker says. Addi- tionally, people are not always aware that someone who is miss- ing or murdered is Indigenous, and tribes aren’t always informed right away. That was the case with her aunt, Gertrude “Birdie” SeeWalker, who was 65 when she was assaulted in East Colfax last year. “My aunt from Standing Rock Nation got mur- dered on Colfax in Denver, and she was misidentifi ed as being a Latina woman,” See- Walker says. “Misinformation of data is being collected at the forefront of these cases.” RedLine’s artists are eager to kick off a year of conversation surrounding Indige- nous culture and to radically overthrow com- mon Western narratives of Native people. “Usually these types of things are tied into academia somehow, or powwows or Indigenous People’s Day,” Deal says. “I love that this is just happening because it’s hap- pening. It doesn’t have to have a reason or a purpose.” 48 Hours of Socially Engaged Art & Conversa- tion, August 12 and 13, RedLine Contemporary Art Center, 2350 Arapahoe Street, free; learn more and register at redlineart.org. AUGUST 11-17, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com REDLINE CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER GREGG DEAL
