Week Four Discussion Post: The Denver Art Museum Presentation Panel

 

    Upon the culmination of twenty-twenty, the Denver Art Museum unveiled the much-anticipated Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Mexican Modernism exhibition. As a commemoration of its featured creators and artworks, the museum held a series of panel presentations in January of twenty-twenty-one that posed the question, What Makes Mexican Modernism Relevant Today? One such artist honored amongst the ensemble was none other than Pablo Helguera. Helguera is a New York-based Mexican designer with a number of interdisciplinary works under his belt. He has had the fortune of working on several drawings, sculptures, photographs, and socially engaged creative pieces. Of the bunch, his narration and creations profoundly resonated within me and I was completely drawn in with his presentation. 

    To commence, in his primitive years as an artist, he conducted several interviews with Native Americans and Indigenous Mexicans living in proximity of the United States-Mexico border. He was particularly interested in documenting the narratives of tribes members who were amongst the last individuals in their community to speak their native language. This specific project impacted me immensely as I am an Indigenous Mexicana-Xicana who has unfortunately lost her language. Throughout my life, I have often wondered what it would be like to be able to speak and comprehend my mother tongue. It is a piece of myself I feel that I am missing. However, with Helguera's transformative piece, I was able to gain tremendous insight into the knowledge Indigenous elders possess and their lucha to save and pass forward their sacred languages. Merely hearing about creative piece was so unbelievably moving. 

    Furthermore, I was deeply touched to have learned that Pablo Helguera was tremendously influenced by his uncle, León Helguera, to continue in his artistic pursuits. He even remodeled one of his most prominent pieces depicting American icon, Uncle Sam, presumably during wartime. Pablo Helguera took this illustration and remodeled it to become a protesting piece in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement during the time of the June riots of twenty-twenty. Silence is Compliance as he titled it, further demonstrated not only how talented Helguera is, but showed that he did in fact have a passion for using his creations for good. This piece was all the more important as it proved that non-Black people of color could become conscionable allies that did not overstep their boundaries. 

    In all, I greatly enjoyed the presentation panel that was organized by the Denver Art Museum. I feel that I gained considerable insight from all the testimonials I heard and in the future, I hope to attend more of these amazing events. With chance, may it be in person.