Cannupa Hanska Luger in Residence

Image: Photo by Brendan George Ko

Cannupa Hanska Luger in Residence at the Carlos

Cannupa Hanska Luger is a New Mexico-based multidisciplinary artist who uses social collaboration in response to timely and site-specific issues. Raised on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, he is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, and European descent. His work includes monumental installations that incorporate ceramics, video, sound, fiber, steel, new media, technology, and repurposed materials. Luger interweaves performance and political action to communicate stories about 21st-century Indigeneity.

His work is featured in Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, the first exhibition to feature together the work of two leading Indigenous contemporary artists whose processes focus on collaborative artmaking, on view at the Carlos through December 12, 2021.

From November 5-13, Luger will be in residence at the Carlos, conducting programs for Emory students and the public. Join us for one or more of the public programs listed below.

Here Song Walk

Saturday, November 6 | 1 PM
Departs from Carlos Museum

Cannupa Hanka Luger's ancestors, the people of the Northern Plains Tribes of North America, studied horizon lines to create melody and other types of sonic experiences. This practice, known as "singing the horizon," connected them to place and reinforced their relationship to the land.

Working with Atlanta's Flux Projects, Luger created Here Song, a mobile app that allows users to trace the landscape and create tonal resonances—sonic stories that engage directly with the land.

Join Cannupa Hanska Luger and master naturalist and nature photographer Kathryn Kolb, for a guided walk through Atlanta's Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, one of the largest areas of old-growth forest in the city. The park lies on Cascade Road, which follows the ancient Native American Sandtown Trail that stretched from Stone Mountain to the Creek village of Sandtown on the Chattahoochee and into Alabama.

The Here Song app is scheduled to drop in the Apple App Store on November 2nd. Download it to create a sonic story of your experience of the land during the walk.

Meet at the Kilgo Circle entrance to the Carlos Museum at 1 PM to board a private bus to the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve.

Space is limited and registration is required by clicking HERE.

In accordance with Emory's Gathering Policy, masks will be required on the bus.

Artist Talk by Cannupa Hanska Luger
Artist as Social Engineer

Sunday, November 7 | 2 PM
Ackerman Hall and Zoom

"In a world polarized politically, economically, racially, and sexually we are forced to question our trust. However, our trust is the mortar that binds our intelligence. We need one another now more than ever. But how do we see eye to eye with human groups we don't trust? Enter the artist. If we can subvert the idea art is an object, a noun, then we can reinstate the truth that art is a verb, an action. In developing processes that include society as a medium the act of making builds communities that are embedded in the object of these processes. It connects people that may not engage with one another to create work together. Thus the role of the artist is bridge-builder. —Cannupa Hanska Luger

Join us for an artist talk titled "Cannupa Hanska Luger: Artist as Social Engineer" in which the contemporary Indigenous artist will discuss his practice and the collaboration and social engagement at its core, from his recent Something to Hold Onto installation at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, Arizona to his current video, installation, and land-based Future Ancestral Technologies.

In accordance with Emory's Gathering Policy, masks are required.

If you prefer to access the program through Zoom rather than in person, click HERE to register.

Emory Climate Talk with Cannupa Hanska Luger

Thursday, November 11 | 4 PM
Ackerman Hall or Zoom

As part of his residency, Cannupa Hanska Luger will participate in the Emory Climate Talks series, which explores the scientific and social aspects of global climate change.

Among other works, Luger will discuss The Mirror Shield Project (2016), a social engagement work, in which he invited the public to create mirrored shields for Water Protectors protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. The project has since been formatted and used in various resistance movements across the nation.

In accordance with Emory University's Gathering Policy, masks are required at this event.

If you prefer to access the program through Zoom rather than in person, click HERE to register.

Image: Detail from artist portrait by Tomas Karmelo, Indigenous Rising Media and drone video stills, courtesy of the artist Cannupa Hanska Luger

Gallery Talk with Cannupa Hanska Luger

Sunday, November 14 | 2:30 PM
Ackerman Hall

Join contemporary Indigenous artists Cannupa Hanska Luger for a gallery talk about his work in the exhibition Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, focusing on collaboration, social engagement, and innovative use of materials, and 21st-century Indigeneity.

Space is limited and registration is required HERE.

In accordance with Emory University's Gathering Policy, masks must be worn at this event.

Image: Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, European), This Is Not a Snake, 2017. Ceramic, oil drums, ammunition cans, and found objects and The One Who Checks, The One Who Balances, 2018. Ceramic, riot gear, afghan, wools surplus industrial felt, beadwork by Kathy Elkhorn Whitman. Courtesy of the artist.