James Luna
James Luna | |
---|---|
New Orleans, Louisiana | |
Nationality | La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, American |
Education | BFA University of California, MS San Diego State University, Honorary PhD Institute of American Indian Arts |
Known for | Performance, installation |
Notable work | The Artifact Piece (1987/1990), Take A Picture With A Real Indian (1993), Emendatio (2005) |
Movement | Indigenous performance art |
Awards | Eiteljorg Fellowship (2007), Guggenheim Fellowship (2017) |
James Luna (February 9, 1950 – March 4, 2018
Background
Luna was born in 1950 in
Luna was an active community member of the
Artwork
A self-proclaimed "American Indian Ceremonial Clown", "Culture Warrior," and "Tribal Citizen",[8] Luna's artwork was known for challenging racial categories and exposing outmoded, Eurocentric ways in which museums have displayed Native American Indians as parts of natural history, rather than as living members of contemporary society.[3]
While Luna began his art career as a painter, he soon branched out into performance and installation art, which he did for over three decades. Some of his best known pieces are:
The Artifact Piece (1987–1990)
In The Artifact Piece (1987) at the
Take a Picture With a Real Indian (1991–93)
In the early 1990s, Luna stood outside of Washington DC's
Standing at a podium wearing an outfit, I announce: "Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here, in Washington, D.C., on this beautiful Monday morning, on this holiday called Columbus Day. America loves to say 'her Indians.' America loves to see us dance for them. America likes our arts and crafts. America likes to name cars and trucks after our tribes. Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here today, on this sunny day here in Washington, D.C." And then I just stand there. Eventually, one person will pose with me. After that they just start lining up. I'll do that for a while until I get mad enough or humiliated enough.[14]
In utilizing and engaging a public audience, Luna taps into common cultural commodification of Native American culture. Such a trend manifests in the idea of the "McIndian"; the idea that Native culture is something that can be massed produced, consumed, and enjoyed without acknowledging the deep history of oppression Native Americans have endured.[4]
In My Dreams: A Surreal, Post-Indian, Subterranean Blues Experience (1996)
In this performance, Luna is acclaimed for having challenged the trope that Native Americans are "peoples of memory" in ways that white culture may envy as being more purely spiritual.[11] In one scene, he performs a "traditional" dance with crutches to reveal how white demand for Native performance is both limiting and inauthentic. In another, he puts his diabetes on display, giving himself insulin on stage which is said by critics to be emblematic of the binary of the "wild" but "controlled" Native American.[4]
His final scene in this performance is a tribute to Dean Martin, which serves to reverse white tributes to Native peoples back on to his white audiences. By having a Native American Indian idolize a white person in a way that is relatively fanatic, Luna revealed the problematic manner in which white people can idolize Native American figures.[citation needed]
Emendatio (2005)
In 2005 the National Museum of the American Indian sponsored him to participate in the Venice Biennale.[7] The piece he created, Emendatio, included three installations, Spinning Woman, Apparitions: Past and Present, and The Chapel for Pablo Tac, as well a personal performance in Venice, Renewal dedicated to Pablo Tac (1822–1841), a Luiseño Indian author and scholar, who went to study in Rome, where he died.[4]
Utilizing cultural aspects of both the Lusieno people and his own family, Luna's installations and performance expose the affects that the poor translation of Native identities as well as globalization has had in oppressing narratives of Native American memory while inspiring both "white envy" and "liberal guilt".[4]
Honors and awards
Throughout his career, Luna received many awards. Including:
- 1988: LACE Fellowship (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, California)
- 1998: C.O.M.B.O Grant for Literary Studies (San Diego, California)
- 1991: Bessie Creator Award (New York Dance Theatre Workshop, New York)
- 1991: Fellowship in Sculpture (Western States Arts Federation's; Santa Fe, New Mexico)
- 1992: Grant for work in Performance, (California Arts Council; Sacramento, California)
- 1992: Offsite Installation Grant (Capp Street Project; San Francisco, California)
- 1992: Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Film/Video Fellowship (New York)
- 1993: Best Live Short Subject Award for The History of the Luiseno People: La Jolla Reservation Christmas 1990 (American Indian Film Festival; San Francisco, California)
- 1994: Faculty Residency (Skowhegan School of Painting; Skowhegan, Maine)
- 1994: Distinguished Visiting Faculty Award (University of California, Davis)
- 1995: Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium Video Grant, "Bringing it All Back Home" video project
- 2000: Andrea Frank Foundation Grant
- 2000: Arts International Grant
- 2001: Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission
- 2001: University of California Regents Lecture (University of California, San Diego)[15]
- 2001: Dorantes Lecturer (Santa Barbara City College, California)
- 2002: Creative Capital Award[16]
- 2007: Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art[9]
- 2011: Honorary PhD from the Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, New Mexico[17]
- 2015: Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Arts Fellowship[18]
- 2017: Guggenheim Fellowship[5]
Quotes
"I truly live in two worlds. This 'two world' concept once posed too much ambiguity for me, as I felt torn as to whom I was. In maturity I have come to find it the source of my power, as I can easily move between these two places and not feel that I have to be one or the other, that I am an Indian in this modern society.[7]
"Yes. The people are getting up there to have their picture taken with an Indian, just like they would have their picture taken with the bull statue on Wall Street. It's there for the taking. Indian people always have been fair game, and I don't think people quite understand that we're not game. Just because I'm an identifiable Indian, it doesn't mean I'm there for the taking.
But in the long run I'm making a statement for me, and through me, about people's interaction with American Indians, and the selective romanticization of us."[19]
Death
Luna had a fatal
See also
- List of Native American artists
- List of indigenous artists of the Americas
- Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
References
- ^ a b Pratt, Stacy (2018-03-06). "Noted Indigenous performance artist James Luna walks on". First American Art Magazine. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
- ^ "Remembering Artist James Luna (1950-2018)". Creative Capital. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
- ^ a b "How Luiseno Indian Artist James Luna Resists Cultural Appropriation". JSTOR Daily. 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
- ^ a b c d e f g Blocker, Jane (2009). "Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Testimony". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
- ^ a b "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |James Luna". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
- ^ "James Luna | OCMA | Orange County Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-295-98781-1.
- ^ a b Haas, Lisbeth. Pablo Tac, Indigenous Scholar: Writing on Luiseño Language and Colonial History. The University of Chicago Press.
- ^ a b Biography and Bibliography Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. James Luna. (retrieved 21 April 2009)
- ^ "Resume" (PDF). nmai.si.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
- ^ S2CID 191380094.
- ^ Saracho, A. R. (2014). "Identity and Authenticity: A study of the contemporary Native American experience through the works of Fritz Scholder and James Luna". ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
- ^ OCLC 499179296.
- ^ Righthand, Jess (May 2011). "Q and A with James Luna". smithsonian. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Surreal Post Indian Blues & the Origin of the Sun and the Moon".
- ^ "Noted Multimedia and Performance Artist James Luna Passes Away at 67 > Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)". 6 March 2018.
- ^ "James Luna - Native Arts and Cultures Foundation". 6 August 2015.
- ^ Righthand, Jess (January 2011). "Q & A: James Luna: The Native American Artist Talks about his "Take a Picture with a Real Indian" Performance". Smithsonian Magazine.
External links
- The Performance Art of James Luna, official site
- James Luna, Emendatio, National Museum of the American Indian Archived 2009-04-13 at the Wayback Machine
- James Luna, Vision Project, by Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds
- James Luna, "I've Always Wanted to be an American Indian"