Mural Remix: Sandra de la Loza

Sandra de la Loza, founder of the Pocho Research Society of Erased and Invisible History, presents a visual “mashup” of Chicano muralism by sampling obscure and forgotten details in L.A. murals produced in Los Angeles during the Chicano movement of the 1970s. Taking the role of a performative archivist, she extracts, slices, and blows up archival material to create a multi-media installation that provides a constantly shifting glance at Chicano muralism. Through an experimental video documentary, she opens the material and conceptual bounds in which we see and understand the mural by exploring this history in relationship to Los Angeles urbanism, countercultural aesthetics, and art as a social practice. Lightboxes and a video installation further explore aesthetic strategies utilized during this era and link this history to contemporary artistic production. The video installation was created in collaboration with Joseph Santarromana, and includes action portraits by contemporary artists Fabian Debora, Roberto del Hoyo, Raul Gonzalez, Liliflor, Sonji, and Timoi.

Mural Remix is part of the multi-part exhibition cycle L.A. Xicano, organized by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, which presents the artistic contributions of Mexican-American and Chicano artists to American art and to Los Angeles’s artistic development. The project is an organizational collaboration that will culminate in five concurrent exhibitions, including Mural Remix at LACMA; Chican@ Collects: The Durón Family Collection at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library (September 22–December 9, 2011); Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation at the Autry National Center (October 14, 2011–January 8, 2012); Icons of the Invisible: Oscar Castillo (September 25, 2011–February 26, 2012) and Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement (October 16, 2011–February 26, 2012) at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.

Mural Remix is curated by Chon Noriega, Director of UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and adjunct curator at LACMA. It is one of five exhibitions LACMA is presenting in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time, an unprecedented collaboration initiated by the Getty, bringing together more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California to tell the story of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene (beginning October 2011).

Image credits:

Sandra de la Loza, Mural Remix; Untitled by Ernesto de la Loza and Richard “Lil Man” Ruiz, ca. 1972 (After the Riots), 2010 © Sandra de la Loza

Sandra de la Loza, Mural Remix; Unknown, Believed to Be by José A. Gallegos, 1975 © Sandra de la Loza

Sandra de la Loza, Mural Remix; Unknown, Artist Unknown; ca. 1970s, 2010 © Sandra de la Loza

Detail of Mexican imagery in a mural by an unknown artist, 1970s © Sandra de la Loza