Courtesy the artist and Rory Wakemup/All My Relations Gallery, Minneapolis.
Born in North Dakota on the Standing Rock Reservation, artist Cannupa Hanska Luger comes from Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian descent. Luger’s multidisciplinary work tells provocative stories of complex Indigenous identities coming up against 21st Century imperatives, mediation, and destructivity. Luger creates socially conscious work that hybridizes his identity as an American Indian in tandem with global issues. Using his art as a catalyst, Luger invites the public to challenge expectations and misinterpretations imposed upon Indigenous peoples by historical and contemporary colonial social structures. www.cannupahanska.com
Watch “How to Build Mirror Shields for Standing Rock Water Protectors” on vimeo.com.
Cannupa Hanska Luger thanks Jack Becker from Forecast Public Art for helping bring Mirror Shields to Standing Rock, ND, along with Rory Wakemup at All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, who conceived of a workshop and hosted Luger as guest artist. The sculpture department at the University of Minnesota cut all the wood down to size to make 500 shields. Christopher Lutter and the Ivy Arts Building donated space for 20 volunteers to assemble them.