New York Times Magazine Profile 2022
written by Joshua Hunt @viajoshhunt
photographs by Cara Romero @cararomerophotography
Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, an artist drawn to New Mexico, was featured in the New York Times Magazine. Luger states:
“It is vulnerable to read what comes from engagement with journalists – in all transparency I often don’t. It may be imposter syndrome or that in my culture we do not talk about ourselves in a boastful way.
After spending several month’s this year meeting up in stints with Tlingit writer Joshua Hunt for the recent @nytmag artist profile, I found a trust that is rare in the increasingly familiar exchange between artist and journalist.
When the article came out in print, I was on my ancestral homelands in North Dakota with no means to grab a copy (the NYT isn’t well stocked on the rez). Returning to the studio last week, I received a package from the NYT with a handful of copies of the magazine. I finally had the opportunity to read the piece in full – It took a month to get to do this, and if i didn’t feel that kinship with Josh (and have photos taken by my friend Cara Romero) I may not have made space to sit with the words in total- and I am grateful I have.
To Josh, I want to thank you for taking the time to write this piece, to share a bit about my life and work and family with the world, to relate your experience personally to the art I create, reflecting so honestly a shared experience of loss, joy, anger and resilience as Indigenous people, for your ability to see the urgent optimism that is woven into all of the work I do – thank you for making more visible our living and evolving complexity as Native people.”
Full article here:
New York Times Magazine Profile 2022
CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER BIO
Born on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, New Mexico based artist Cannupa Hanska Luger is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota heritage. Creating monumental installations, sculpture and performance to communicate urgent stories about 21st Century Indigeneity, Luger incorporates ceramics, steel, fiber, video and repurposed materials to activate speculative fiction, engage land-based actions of repair and practice empathetic response through social collaboration. Luger combines critical cultural analysis with dedication and respect for the diverse materials, environments, and communities he engages while provoking diverse audiences to engage with Indigenous peoples and values apart from the lens of colonial social structuring.