¡Colores!; 407; Homage to the Square, Manuel González, Philip Augustin

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: The Nellita E. Walker Fund KNME-TV Endowment Fund The Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund Viewers Like You >>THIS TIME, ON COLORES! HOMAGE TO THE SQUARE - COMPARING EARLY NAVAJO TEXTILES WITH MODERN ART. >>Marlowe: I think what's important to note about early Navajo textiles is experimentation. >>Mark: It's a minimalist aesthetic that correlates very well with what was going on in New York City in the 1950's to 1970's. >>ALBUQUERQUE'S POET LAUREATE MANUEL GONZALEZ, SHARES HIS PASSION FOR COMMUNITY AND DEBUTS A SPECIALPERFORMACE OF HIS POEM MI VIDA LOCA. >>We all have stories to tell

and everybody's story is unique and beautiful and it's that telling ofthe story that not only can heal us, it can heal those who are listening to us. >>SANTA FE PHOTOGRAPHER PHILIP AUGUSTIN SIMPLIFIES THE WORLD INTO MINIMAL, FORMALIST COMPOSITIONS. HE USES ABSTRACTION TO QUESTION THE BOUNDARIES OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC PROCESS. >>IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES! COMPARING MODERN ART WITH EARLY NAVAJO TEXTILES. (music) >>Katoney: I think what's important to note about early experimentation. >>Sublette: There's a very specific group of weavings

that I find to have a unique artistic voice and these are a specific period from about 1890s to 1920s. >>Katoney: I feel that Native Americans at that particular time were dealing with abstract images, based on what the materials that they were working with allowed them to do. >>Sublette: It's a minimalistic aesthetic that correlates very well with what was going on in New York City and 1950 to the 70s. (music) (working the loom) >>Katoney: When I was growing up people I would always go, "you're going to be an artist." No, I'm not. I'm not going to become

an artist," but when I started to weave I felt good about it in the sense that I was doing something that had seemingly discontinued in my family, because my grandmother was the only active weaver. She passed last October and I think it made her very happy that I was weaving, so that's what keeps me going. That's what makes me feel good about weaving, that I'm continuing that tradition within our family. (working the loom) >>Katoney: My Grandma was a Ganado Red Weaver, so I'll often do a Ganado Red Rug to have that continuity within my own family, but also I think, mimicking or recreating old patterns

kind of informs mycontemporary view. As a pictorial weaver I find myself as a kind of narrator into my own experience. What's important to recognize about Navajo weaving is there experimentation. From very early on you have the striped Chief's blankets and then you had the introduction you had the transitional period you really had, I feel that you had weaver's that were really in search of creating their own style and they were using color, and they were using shape inorder to search those ideas out. So, it's of no surprise for me that after Bosque Redondo, when they had all these other materials available to them, that they were going to experiment can't be any hard evidence

to what these people were thinking because of course Navajo people didn't have anything written down. Most of what we relied on was an oral tradition, and that oral tradition is usually based upon region, family, clans, so it's going to vary no matter who you talk to. You see some very interesting things within that transitional period and within early rugs. (music) >>Sublette: There's one textile I find tremendously enjoyable and it's just nested squares of color that go in and go in until a single color and the colors start to bounce in and out and it's much more than just a saddle blanket, which is what it was. It was made as a single saddle blanket, but it has a rhythm

to it. There's a large weaving that's probably six by eight feet that's very impressive. It's an impressivefor many, many reasons. One, it's very early. Its 1890's timeframe, so it's a transitional blanket and it's just large blocks of very bright colors, huge blocks that go inwards with the center, whichis all this mountain mahogany which is a natural color. And the color sense of that individual is immense. >>Katoney: I have seen, in that particular rug, experimentation with very early color theory, which tells me that there was a lot of sophistication in the thought process of Navajos who were designingrugs during that particular time. Most notably I see the black and white lines that were framing it; black, white, black, white from the outside, working

your way in and then you have the blue, red, and yellow, which are all primary colors. So, in a sense that creates almost like a vibration between the two, because when you put a primary color next to a primary color, they're going to fight eachother. I'd say that was very early in the sense that they had not been exposed to Modern Art. >>Sublette: You as a viewer are getting to see this expression that just focuses you in and in, and it's a magnificent weaving, and so if that's not Modern So were the modernist painters of the 1940s to 70s, let's say, influenced by the Navajos? Well that really is the question, isn't it? In my own opinion that there had to be some kind of evaluation by these modern artists. If you look at Josef

Albers, he is very interested in Mesoamerica. He spent a lot of time, many,many, many years in Mexico, and at least one summer in New Mexico, and he's Now, look at the Navajo textiles. When you look at some of these single saddle blankets, you see nested boxes sense. When I look at an Albers print or painting and examine it, I personally get the same emotional response as I do with a Navajo weaving. Whether the modernists, you know, were taking or being influenced by these weavings, I don't know that we know thatanswer. When you think about the first phase blankets, if you look at this grid pattern today, in today's world you would look at this and you might

think, "Wow, that's such a modern aesthetic." Well, the reality was, this is the aesthetic of the Navajo in the 1820s, 1840s, and it translates and carries on today. >>Katoney: I think what's important to note about what's going on right now and what's going to be remembered forever about Navajo weaving, is because it is Navajo, and it comes from a particular culture, you're always going to have the foundation of what people have created before. Your grandmother, your aunts, and what they had created, so oftentimes you have those designsthat are passed down from one generation to the next. But, because we have these ideas that are floating around with pop culture, you're going to have a deconstruction of those designs in order to create something new.

transitional period where you have weavers like Melissa Cody, like D.Y. Begay, like Michael Ornelas who are really incorporating contemporary graffiti art, experimenting with wedge weaving, experimenting with things that they have never done. So it's a very exciting period right Most of us have had schooling beyond high school. We have access to the Internet. We have access to pop culture. We have access to museums. We're able to talk more freely about the work that we do. We're able to exchange ideas. So having that is more than just a confluence. We're able and that's, I think, part of tradition. But, also it's

part of working outside of parameters and being even beyond the margins of what we've been allowed to do in the past. I think it'simportant to reinvent something and pass it on because it gives something >>MANUEL GONZALEZ SHARES THE POWER OF WORDS. >>Bellamy: How do poems honor? >>Gonzales: See when you sit down and you decide to write and authentic, somethingreal, something that describes your most deepest and personal thoughts, when you sit there and you try to be true and honest with your pencil and your paper, what you create honors the subject that you're talking about. And, it's because of that honesty that you're putting into the words that you're creating, that inherently makes it honor those things, because you're being real

with your thoughts and being honest with your feelings. And it's those emotions that come out as being authentic in that way. powerful? >>Gonzales: There are signs and symbols. They are symbols for the things that we're speaking of, andso we're using these symbols as representations for emotions and life and our interpretations. And so, those symbols become powerful because we give them power because they represent these things that are precious to us. >>Bellamy: What inspired you to write "Mi Vida Loca?" >>Gonzales: Well, it kind of started with, I was thinking about Johnny Tapia's tattoos and how kind of mi vida loca is a good way to describe life in general, and especially, specifically to Albuquerque in that way, because it's, that phrase is connected to us thanks to Johnny Tapia. And that's kindof where it started and it evolved from that point. When I write, I try to use images from my life,my culture, New

Mexico and Albuquerque, specifically, even closer than that sometimes, just Barelasand my Gamma's house. But, by speaking of the things that I know that aren't necessarily represented in the greater culture of the United States, these little gems that only we know here as being Burquenos. The things that only happen to us, that we know. I try to write that into my poetry. It's almost like I'm telling secrets. I'm letting the greater world know how magical and amazing my home is. And so, when I honor home with a poem in that way, I'm using images from my life, images that I feel are authentic and real images that are close to my family and the things that I want to pass on to my children and leave as a legacy for those that come after me like that. (flute music) The title of this poem is "Mi

Vida Loca." My crazy life Full of magic and mystery This life we lead This road we walk Our shoes are ragged and worn But still we dance We dance to celebrate life La vida We dance our prayers into the soil Mother earth Madre tierra As tears trickle down our cheeks We dance our sorrow into the soil With passion and palmas Con gusto Our grito Can be heard Crying out our pain Until it turns to laughter After that we laugh at our own mortality Muerte and marigolds litter the streets of the south valley While we build altars to honor our ancestors With us here in spirit Finding silence in secret sacred spaces Places where the river tells

her tales And cotton floats in the air like forgotten dreams Reminding us of our magic Here in the moment Forever now The river sings And her melody is mesmerizing Making music that was composed at the beginning Of time At the magic hour Where the light is blue Where we are one Unmoving Together in the harmony To remind us to bring back

The signs and symbols from our dreams Flowers and song Flor y canto In xochitl in cuicatl Inspiration and direction Astrology and sacred geometry Numerology and cosmology Mastering our memories Remembering our hope for the future Our grandchildren's songs That we're learning to hum today Today we inherit the legacy Of opportunity When the sun rises We get another chance To feel the rhythm and Dance the dance the dance Of this vida This life This awkward waltz with our shadows This ballet of balance Where we keep the ballerinas on their toes In this intense tango of terror and delight Two stepping with la muerte To the last song At the end of the night Before the early bird begins to sing

And the world is washed with that blue light Before dawn The delicate light of an infant day Where we get another opportunity Another moment to shine Another chance To dance (flute music) >>Gonzales: When I first started writing, I was a young man having a hard time dealing with life, society and the world, and my own specific life. And it wasn't until I sat down and started writing out my problems, that I began to heal myself from those bruises and scars that were on my heart. As I got older I started to find that sharing that art form with other people and showing them that they can heal themselves in that way has been a beautiful calling for me. We all have stories to tell andeverybody's story is unique and beautiful and it's that telling of the story that not only can healus, it can heal those that

are listening to us in that way. So, its sharing of the story is an important part of it. >>PHILIP AUGUSTIN'SPHOTOGRAPHS SIMPLIFY THE WORLD. (string music) in nature that captures your attention?

>>Augustin: Well, my Yellowstone work, this, the snow, the fog all made for very minimal images, youknow. There weren't, a whole lot of distracting details, and as I worked more and more with the Yellowstone landscape, I spent seven winters up there, a little under 200 days there, and gradually my work became more and more abstract within the natural scene. A good example of that is 'Shadows in Yellowstone.' At the time, that was a fascinating image to me. In hindsight that was a pivot-image for me because even though it's of shadows, and it's very abstract, it's still back and was one that showed an advanced thought about how

abstraction works. That the natural world is busy, you know, if you're out in the wilderness of Yellowstone, there's trees and there's grasses, and to me minimalism is muting those down. This one thing that winter did. With the snow, all the grasses are hidden. The distance is muted with the fog. It allows me as a photographer to concentrate the viewers' attention on what I saw specifically, the lines, the forms, the shadows. >>Augustin: Photographs come about as questions. >>Bellamy: And what are the questions that come

to mind when you're... >>Augustin: Well my current work is about non-representational photography, so the question becomes can a photograph be non-representational? There is has to have, but by de-focusing an image by making it so out of focus you can't tell what it is, it's no longer representing what's in front of the camera. >>Bellamy: How did you arrive at that process? >>Augustin: I was working on a series called 'Questions one of them in the dark room one day, and I'm usually really careful in the darkroom, but for some reason the enlarged was grossly out of focus. I didn't notice it until I had the film, or the print process, and while the print was garbage, it clicked with what something else that had been going on in my head, and I put my thought, my question was, is it possible to make a lens-based, you a different way of viewing

the world. Most of my abstract images are triggered by something in the real world, and what I think is important between talking about the Yellowstone work and my abstract work, is that they really aren't all that different. I'm using different materials and I'm taking it further in surface tensions or vanishing point, but it equates to what you seein nature, or what you could see in nature. What I'm really talking about in my abstraction is forms, light, shadows, the relative composition of the two.

>>Bellamy: What is the role of the artist? >>Augustin: The role of the artist, I think, is to show the viewer something that they might not see, to show my vision to the viewer. You're putting a frame around something and saying this is important to me. This is something that you should see, and maybe you're telling the viewer that they justneed to take a closer >>Funding for COLORES was

provided in part by: The Nellita E. Walker Fund KNME-TV Endowment Fund The Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund