Funky fusion and 'Native Nollies'

Nate Gutierrez | For The New Mexican July 30, 2004 Graffiti and urban art can be seen everywhere these days. These stylized signatures known as tags or sticker art can be found on countless objects, including light poles, overpass signs and buses. Some of the big spray-paint pieces seen along highways or in alleys might have been thought about and sketched by the artist for days. Skill and timing are involved - right down to what cap is used for the spray paint, with caps for skinny lines, fat lines and paint control. Japanese anime and manga (the print version) and comic-book art have been making their way into popular culture for some time. Even Vincent Van Gogh used to collect and copy the Japanese woodblock prints that influenced anime and comic-book art. Popular Japanese anime characters adorn shirts and lunchboxes, and video rental stores have whole walls dedicated to anime movies. Hit movies like The Matrix tip their hat to Japanese anime, and, with the help of Hollywood, comic-book heroes like the! Hulk, Spider-Man, Batman, the X-Men - and now Catwoman - are more popular than they ever were in comic books. In recognition of the mixture of popular and hip-hop culture in the artwork of young Native American artists, the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum, a teaching facility for the IAIA college and venue for contemporary Native American art, hosts Pop Life: Youth Night at the IAIA Museum on Saturday, July 31, a night of graffiti and hip-hop performances, hands-on art and poetry. The event is in conjunction with the exhibit Native Nollies: Skateboard Deck Art by Douglas Miles, on view through Aug. 29. Just as Miles paints graphic images of Apache warriors, Native American dancers and contemporary "rez" images on skateboard decks, the museum is "encouraging younger artists to draw upon urban and pop-culture images to find who they are," said Marla Redcorn-Miller, interim curator of education at IAIA in a phone interview. Pop Life includes art stations, where, beginning at 5 p.m, visitors can collaborate on a mural with IAIA student artists, including contemporary figurative painter Denton Lafferty and Nacona Burgess, whose paintings are stylized, stenciled works. A 16-inch-by-60-foot canvas will be stretched out and gridded off in the Education Gallery, and visitors can "pick out a little square and do what they want," said Redcorn-Miller. The 7 to 9 p.m. performance offers hip-hop, graffiti and poetry. A mini poetry slam (two rounds) and readings by Douglas Miles are among the evening's offerings, which are hosted by IAIA graduate Sara Ortiz and Gary Mex Glazner, a national figure in the poetry slam movement. Since the museum is a teaching facility as well as art space, museum interns are coordinating events with museum staff. Welana Fields, a summer intern from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., is coordinating the graffiti and hip-hop performance. Fields sees the event as "almost a performance piece," she said in a phone interview. The piece will have the energy and speed of graffiti, along with hip-hop music. "It's all about quickness, and out of this quickness you can get this great piece," Fields said. Yatika Fields, a graffiti artist living in Boston (and Welana’s younger brother); Rose Simpson, a musician in the underground hip-hop scene and artist in Albuquerque; and DJ Kwaikane from Dallas are the featured performance artists. "It's also about meeting other young artists and networking," Welana Fields said. The three artists live in different parts of the United States but have worked together through Atlatl, a national Native American arts organization that trains young artists through its Native Arts Leadership Initiative and holds exhibits at different museums. Yatika Fields and Simpson will be "tagging this huge piece of canvas onstage," Welana Fields said, but the artists will be wearing safety equipment and ventilation masks to protect themselves from the fumes. Yatika and Simpson, she said, are a lot alike in their approach to art. "They make their st at ement unlike the traditional Indian art scene and keep it real," Welana Fields said. In an interview, Simpson said the work will be "a live aerosol piece," and she will sing a cappella and "collaborate on beats" with the DJ. Yatika Fields doesn't incorporate graffiti into his fine art, but he belongs to a graffiti crew in Boston. During a phone interview from Oklahoma, the artist said he had just finished a mural for a casino, the biggest piece he has done. Yatika got into graffiti about five years ago when he was playing chess in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., and traded sketchbooks with another guy. But he didn't get into hip-hop because he "was more into punk and skateboards." In 2000 Yatika was chosen to go the Young Artists Exhibition of Contemporary Indigenous Art: Discovering the Roots at the Asian Pacific Economic Council in Brunei, where he worked with young artists from other countries. Artists participating in Pop Life will demonstrate how popular culture, graffiti art and hip-hop music fit into young Native American art. Simpson said about the night, "It's a new thing for IAIA, instead of its regular crowd " Plus it's only two bucks. Details Pop Life: Youth Night at IAIA Museum 5-9 p.m. Saturday, July 31 art stations 5-9 p.m. performance 7-9 p.m. 108 Cathedral Pl