James Luna, Pink Russian, 2007 from a series on an ageing artist

We are really pleased to announce that James Luna is up and about again after illness and we have rescheduled his One Day Sculpture project Urban (Almost) Rituals for 14 May 2009, 8am – 4pm.

Put it in your diary now.

To recap with a bit from my last post on James:

Urban (Almost) Rituals promises to be a multifaceted piece that will unfold in four acts over the 8 hours. As one might expect if familiar with James’s work there will be a mixture of talk, music, action and installation of objects. I don’t want to give any details away so that there will be a sense of surprise on the day.
 
If you can’t make it to Te Papa to see the project then you can watch the work online via this link www.tepapa.govt.nz/jamesluna. At the moment this link takes you to the Te Papa info page on James, but on the day, during the performance it will be a live stream.

We are also working on organising a couple of talks while James is here so stay tuned for more information about these too. One Day Sculpture will be sending out an email announcement about the project, and they do the handy text reminders the day before. You can subscribe and sign up to the One Day Sculpture reminders through their website.

James Luna, Artifact piece, 1985-1987

We’re back in Wellington and James has returned home to work on shaping what will be the One Day Sculpture project. As I mentioned, this post covers a bit about James’ practice by looking at a few works.

James Luna has been creating visual art, interdisciplinary exhibitions and performances that are informed by his native culture for over three decades.

He is probably best known for the work Artifact piece, above. For this work he lay in a display case, with some of his possessions and explanatory labels around him. (This piece was recently re-presented at the National Museum of the American Indian by artist Erica Lord.)

James continually challenges the view, still often presented, of native people and cultures as static and traditional practices as the only ‘authentic’ ones. To do this he incorporates tradition and history with modern technology to speak of current issues declaring them to be authentic.

End of the Frail, James Luna, mixed media installation, 1990-91, various sites. Photo: Richard Lou

James’ cultural references draw on his American background including his Native American Indian and Mexican heritage as well as the influences of other indigenous peoples, colonial settlers and of course contemporary America. The work at right is an example of this type of referencing.

You may recognise the sculpture it refers to as the End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser. The sculpture was the original work, and has subsequently been widely reproduced on posters, belt buckles and many other places. A google image search for the End of the Trail will give you an idea of the use of the highly romanticised image.

Incidentally, the original sculpture is now held at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

James’ version of the work is a ‘ tableau variation on End of the Trail, Luna mimics the same lifeless pose, but the pony has been replaced by a weathered sawhorse, and the spear by a bottle of liquor. Nobility has been replaced by pathos.’ (Stephen Durland).

You can read more from this text in an online article Call Me in ’93: An Interview with James Luna.

James Luna

Some work-in-progress  involves masks and characterisation. James recently spent some time with a photographer performing characters. His reference points were late 19th and early 20th century Native American masks and carvings used for performances and ceremony. He didn’t reproduce specific masks, but rather just moved through expressions and characterisations freely as the photographer shot pictures. These images might end up being used on TV screens stacked like a video totem pole.

James Luna

You can see  examples of the type of masks that James had in mind while he was working on these expressions of character by searching the National Museum of the American Indian collection database.

Here is a mask by the Gitxsan (Gitksan) people

James has also performed with Chicano artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña in their ongoing project The Shame-man meets El Mexican’t. There are also some image montages of the two together in a recent performative photo shoot.

James Luna is unafraid to push buttons to defy the stereotypes. His stories are not those of the nice Indian storyteller – they can be painful – but he also uses well placed irony, parody and humour in his delivery as a strategy to diffuse the tension that so often surrounds cultural stereotypes.

UPDATE: Due to unforseen circumstances James Luna’s project Urban (Almost) Rituals has been postponed. James is unable to make it to New Zealand at this time. We are planning to reschedule the project. Check the Te Papa website and/or the One Day Sculpture website for updates. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Since I posted introducing One Day Sculpture and visiting artist James Luna, who is developing a project to be presented at Te Papa, Megan, James and I have been to Auckland and back.

James Luna, End of Acoustic, 2005, from a faux rock & roll multimedia installation – All Indian All the Time

In Auckland James gave a talk at the Auckland Art Gallery’s Art Lounge as part of their Easy Listening series. He also met a whole lot of people including several artists.

Back at Te Papa we have been discussing and planning the project – which will be on 26 March – and it is taking shape really well. At this point I will say that it will develop over about 12 hours and will include objects that James will arrange within a spiral pattern and performance by James and possibly others who volunteer to be a part of the project. There will be food, song, dance, fire, water and a healthy dash of tongue in cheek – of the kind seen right in this image of previous work.

Yesterday we drove up to New Plymouth, stopping at Bulls for lunch on the way.  They really have gone in for the themed town, with all the plays on Bulls they can think of. This one in particular outside the vegetable shop was quite amusing.

Viva Las Vegies!

Then there was the obligatory roadside stop when the mountain became visible.  To make it really authentic, we even got tooted at.

Mount Taranaki, James and Megan

 The trip has turned into quite a busy time, which doesn’t leave much time for blogging, or photography for that matter (must try harder with to get exciting action shots).Today we visited Parihaka, but that’s a post for another time.  Will try to keep you up to date with developments, so stay tuned.

Parihaka Memorial

UPDATE: Due to unforseen circumstances James Luna’s project Urban (Almost) Rituals has been postponed. James is unable to make it to New Zealand at this time. We are planning to reschedule the project. Check the Te Papa website and/or the One Day Sculpture website for updates. Sorry for any inconvenience.