James Luna: Drilling Down on Native American Perceptions
“Everyone is an artist. You have been given the gift of seeing (and hearing, since it’s not just visual) in a certain way. The trick is to let it out,” internationally acclaimed performance artist James Luna assured his crowd. of listeners on Friday. gallery talk on the campus of the University of Southern Maine. Standing in the middle of the Turtle Island/Television Project installed at the University of Southern Maine Art Gallery and curated by Carolyn Eyler, Luna shared the behind-the-scenes stories, the life stories, if you will, of each of the pieces on display, many of which are used as elements in his stage installations.
Luna, a member of the Puyoukitchum (Louiseño) tribe based in La Jolla, California, shared that “People walk in thinking ‘I’m going to see Indian art. Horses. Feathers. Bark. I heard he’s going to dance.'” I am none of that. I’m breaking perceptions. But I am not only talking about myself and other Indians, but about humanistic things, about how we relate to each other. We need to understand our similarities more than our differences and then maybe there will be peace in our life. Art can do that.”
Well, at least Luna’s art can.
Luna is known for challenging his audience by breaking their expectations of what an “Indian” is or how he should look or act or even how “Indian art” should appear. As I wrote in another post on my Heritage in Maine blog, the first time Luna caught my eye was in the early 90’s when I heard about his amazing installation called “Artifact Piece”. In a glowing critique of long-standing museum practices of displaying Native American bodies or burials in gallery exhibits, Luna, clad only in a loincloth, took up residence in a display case at the San Diego Museum of Man.
The theme of the commercialization and exploitation of Native American spirituality is evident in one of the notable pieces on display. “Wet Dream Catcher” (photo on blog) is a tennis racket adorned with condoms and good luck charms that parodies the ubiquitous dream catcher for sale in stores that, in turn, mimic the spiritual item known as ” dream Catcher”. ” Luna explained that “Wet Dream Catcher” expresses her frustration with the sale of Native American spiritual items. “They are not things to sell. If you take, you have to give back.”
All of Luna’s pieces bounce between the expectations of popular culture of Indianness and elements of both the historical and contemporary Indian experience.
The Turtle/Television Island Project installation is shared with Penobscot’s only female birchbark artist, ssipsis, who is also a poet and activist. The installation includes stunning birch bark artwork on loan from the Hudson Museum and the Abbe Museum of Maine, and by ssipsis, as well as a section of a birch bark longhouse, built by Barry Dana (Penobscot). Subsequent events in November will feature and discuss ssipsis’s work that is available to visitors to USM Art Gallery.