UPDATED: April 22, 2019 at 5:55 p.m.

Midway through indigenous artist collective New Red Order’s short film, “The Savage Philosophy of Endless Acknowledgement,” is an apt representation of the themes they explore through their artistic works: “to shift potential obstructions to Indigenous growth and agency,” per a Light Work press release.

“We can’t build a good relationship until we atone for the original,” actor Jim Fletcher said on screen, over flashing images of Syracuse University’s own Saltine Warrior statue.

New Red Order’s latest work, “Culture Capture: Terminal Addition,” was commissioned by Light Work’s Urban Video Project and will be projected outside the Everson Museum of Art through May 25. The collective screened this film, as well as two previous works including “The Savage Philosophy of Endless Acknowledgement,” at a screening and Q&A at the museum on Thursday night.

“Culture Capture: Terminal Addition,” explores the current debates regarding the removal of problematic historical monuments. To create the project, filmmakers Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil and artist Jackson Polys spent last December in Syracuse, looking through local archives and examining monuments like the Saltine Warrior on SU’s quad and the Christopher Columbus monument in downtown Syracuse.

“We’ve found, not only in public, but in semi-private interactions, that the idea of removal as a solution continues to be a flashpoint that activates fears,” Polys said, in an email.

Adam and Zack, brothers and members of the Ojibway nation, have collaborated for the past ten years. They first began working with Polys — whose background lies in sculpture, video and performance art — after he came to the premiere of the Khalil brothers’ first feature film in 2016. The three “hit it off immediately,” Adam said, in an email.

“The overlaps and differences complement each other,” Adam said of the New Red Orders’ work, “and blending our approaches felt like a natural progression for all of our practices.”

“Culture Capture: Terminal Addition” is a collaboration between performance, video and film. The beginning of the seven-minute film is made up of new footage depicting the defacement of various monuments across the country. The second half, however, focuses specifically on Syracuse.

The film is the third and final project in Urban Video Project’s 2018-19 season, which was “The Past Keeps Happening.” The theme, along with the artists who contributed to it, grapple with “the ways in which past imagining of the future and future reflections on the past are always at odds with the lived present,” per a Light Work press release.

Anneka Herre, director of the Urban Video Project since 2010, said one of the most important criteria for choosing films for the season is making sure they grapple with issues that resonate with the community. To promote public engagement, all UVP films are projected outdoors onto the wall of the Everson, running on a continuous loop.

When commissioning the project, Herre said she immediately began telling about the Syracuse community and its history after reaching out to the artists.

“You’ve got recognizable sights from around the city, and it’s an opportunity to get people thinking about and talking about, what do those monuments mean?” Herre said. “What are they monuments to? How do we, as a community, tackle that history?”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Anneka Herre’s name was misstated. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on April 21, 2019 at 11:06 pm