{"id":3044,"date":"2025-11-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3044"},"modified":"2025-11-17T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T18:00:00","slug":"in-dripping-earth-cannupa-hanska-luger-ushers-the-past-into-a-speculative-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3044","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Dripping Earth,\u2019 Cannupa Hanska Luger Ushers the Past into a Speculative Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In<\/p>\n

Upon entering Cannupa Hanska Luger<\/a>\u2019s new exhibition, Dripping Earth<\/em> at the Joslyn Art Museum<\/a>, visitors find themselves, in a sense, underwater. Frames of bull boats sail overhead, referencing the small vessels that some Plains tribes historically used and orienting us within the context of the Joslyn\u2019s location in Omaha along the Missouri River, the museum\u2019s art collection, and Luger\u2019s Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota lineage.<\/p>\n

Luger is known for his interdisciplinary explorations of his Northern Plains ancestry through clay, sculpture, performance, textiles, video, and more. For Dripping Earth, <\/em>the artist took inspiration from a source with a close connection to both the Joslyn\u2019s holdings and his own observations of art in his youth: the work of Swiss artist Karl Bodmer<\/a> (1809\u20131893).<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cThunder as Remarkable Landscape\u201d (2025) from the series \u2018Future Ancestral Technologies,\u2019 eight-color lithograph, edition of 7, sheet: 38 x 26 inches. Photo by Wendy McEahern, courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Between 1832 and 1834, Bodmer accompanied German naturalist Prince Maximilian of Wied<\/a> on a North American expedition. Bodmer served as official documentarian, visually detailing the landscapes and people they encountered in numerous drawings and watercolors, many of which were later reproduced in Europe as lithographs. His portraits, which often emphasize ceremonial regalia, are a valuable record of Indigenous American tribal identity during this time.<\/p>\n

Drawn to the nature of artifacts\u2014how, for instance, Bodmer\u2019s work can become an artifact of an artifact within the context of printmaking and reproductions\u2014Luger considers how narratives are both conveyed and received. When Bodmer\u2019s paintings were translated into lithographs in the 19th century, the printmakers took liberties with \u201ccorrecting\u201d some of what they viewed as mistakes or incompletions, changing anatomical anomalies or missing details. But in some cases, these corrections weren\u2019t actually a reflection of reality, which the original watercolors reveal.<\/p>\n

Luger is interested in how, over time, what is set into print becomes fixed, sometimes misconstrued, and inflexible. On the other hand, oral traditions like those of Northern Plains tribes are always evolving. For Dripping Earth, <\/em>the artist focuses on this fluidity within the broader context of how American history is told.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a Native person growing up in North America, you go to school, you learn the history of the country, and you have a contrary story,\u201d the artist said during an opening talk for Dripping Earth. <\/em>His ongoing series Future Ancestral Technologies <\/em>is a way of collapsing time\u2014of bringing both the past and the future together in a way that addresses how Indigenous American material and visual culture has been shown in museums\u2014as something ancient, primitive, and dark, when in fact it is ever-present and always evolving.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cMid\u00e9egaadi \u2013 Light\u201d (2022) from the series \u2018Future Ancestral Technologies,\u2019 mixed-media bison regalia, installation dimensions variable. \u00a9 Cannupa Hanska Luger. Photo by Brandon Soder, courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this show, Luger scaled up, making some of his largest work to date. A monumental figure of steel and black clay looms over a number of ceramic vessels, carved wooden objects, and multi-media installations. A socially engaged work<\/a> comprising steel poles with handmade clay beads also evokes a giant, three-dimensional abacus<\/a> in the shape of a buffalo, illustrating data of wild buffalo returning to the plains. A few workshops facilitated by the museum invite visitors to create their own clay beads, which are then added to the sculpture to complete the animal\u2019s form over time.<\/p>\n

Central to Dripping Earth<\/em> are a number of dancers sporting crocheted fabrics, padded gloves, and headdresses evocative of bison. These comprise Luger\u2019s Mid\u00e9egaadi <\/em>series, the title of which is derived from the Hidatsa word for buffalo. A new group of limited-run prints combine these colorful figures\u2014complete with Ben-Day dots<\/a> that nod to the act of printmaking itself\u2014with landscapes Bodmer sketched around the Missouri River region. <\/p>\n

Interestingly, although Bodmer made landscape paintings, too, the backgrounds of his portraits are typically left blank. Luger delves into how most 19th-century landscape painting of so-called \u201cvirgin territory\u201d simply left out the presence of the Indigenous people who already lived there. \u201cOh, but we were there!\u201d Luger says. Bodmer\u2019s paintings are almost like the landscapes in reverse, with emphasis only on people. For a new series of Mid\u00e9egaadi <\/em>prints, Luger incorporates Bodmer\u2019s landscapes into the background.<\/p>\n

Notably, many of the landforms the Swiss artist chronicled are now submerged in the Missouri River following the construction of major dams. But Luger considers this to be a part of a bigger story, in which these land forms\u2014created by the river\u2014weren\u2019t \u201clost\u201d but instead reclaimed by it. Which brings us again to how we approach Luger\u2019s show, as though moving through a timeless, watery realm representative of the past, present, and future all at once\u2014a speculative future that brims with the past.<\/p>\n

\"a
Karl Bodmer, \u201cLeader of the Mandan Ber\u00f3ck-\u00d3chat\u00e4,\u201d watercolor and graphite on paper, 17 \u00d7 11 15\/16 inches. Collection of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, gift of the Enron Art Foundation. Photo \u00a9 Bruce M. White (2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Luger\u2019s Mid\u00e9egaadi<\/em> dancers have made a number of appearances throughout 2025, including a large-scale installation for Times Square\u2019s nightly Midnight Moment<\/a> public art program. The video work took over more than 90 giant LED screens in the Manhattan intersection throughout the month of April, running for three minutes starting at 11:57 p.m.<\/p>\n

Last month, one character called \u201cMid\u00e9egaadi \u2013 Fire\u201d also debuted in an unsanctioned digital group exhibition called ENCODED<\/a> <\/em>in the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s American Wing, during which the figure danced across Thomas Cole\u2019s 1836\u201337 painting \u201cView on the Catskills \u2013 Early Autumn\u201d in an augmented reality performance.<\/p>\n

Dripping Earth <\/em>continues through March 8, 2026, in Omaha. And ENCODED <\/em>runs through December 21 in New York City. See more on the artist\u2019s website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cBone as Remarkable Landscape\u201d (2025) from the series \u2018Future Ancestral Technologies,\u2019 eight-color lithograph, edition of 7, sheet: 38 x 26 inches. Photo by Wendy McEahern, courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"artist
\u201cMid\u00e9egaadi \u2013 Fire\u201d (2022) from the series \u2018Future Ancestral Technologies,\u2019 mixed media bison regalia, installation dimensions variable. Photo by Brandon Soder, courtesy of the Gochman Family Collection, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cLight as Remarkable Landscape\u201d (2025) from the series \u2018Future Ancestral Technologies,\u2019 eight-color lithograph, edition of 7, sheet: 38 x 26 inches. Photo by Wendy McEahern, courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Karl Bodmer, \u201cRock Formations on the Upper Missouri\u201d (1833), watercolor and graphite on paper, 12 1\/4 \u00d7 7 3\/4 inches. Collection of the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, gift of the Enron Art Foundation. Photo \u00a9 Bruce M. White (2019)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article In \u2018Dripping Earth,\u2019 Cannupa Hanska Luger Ushers the Past into a Speculative Future<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon entering Cannupa Hanska Luger\u2019s new exhibition, Dripping Earth at the Joslyn Art Museum, visitors find themselves, in a sense, underwater. Frames of bull boats sail overhead, referencing the small…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}