I walk up to my work station in ceramics class one day and there’s this guy sitting at my workspace. I thought to myself, “Okay, this is fine. I’ll just sit down and we can work on our projects at the same table. No big deal.” Listening to him talk was enlightening and watching him work was intriguing. I had never seen this man before, but he came across as well educated and open-minded.
Fast forward to a few days later. In photo class we were asked to attend an artist lecture. Since it was for class, I attended. I have always enjoyed myself at the art galleries I attend, so I figured this one would be no different. I saw all kinds of familiar faces of people from several classes I was taking this semester – one of which was this mystery man that had been sitting at my table.
As we wait for this lecture to begin, the host announces the special guest. To my surprise, the visiting artist is the mystery man in my ceramics class. His name is Cannupa Hanska Luger. He is from New Mexico and he is Native American.
During his lecture, he broke down the social construct of what “Native American art” really is. His style and approach are different than what you would typically think of when you think of “Native American art.” He makes sure his pieces have at east one of the “basics” of Native American art – feathers, fur, tomahawk, ect. And then the rest is all creative.
It amazed me how simple the concepts were, but the social constructs behind them were out of this world. I managed to follow along with the presentation on my computer. I did a quiche Google search and found his website, which can be found here.
He stressed the importance of life and our relationship to this earth and water.
We are all in this thing together.
He also repeatedly brought up adaptability and our ability as humans to adapt and to learn from new, and often frightening, situations.
His concept of frozen conversations really spoke to me. He said that he views his art pieces as “frozen conversations.” Since I am a photographer, I often think of my profession as a “time freezer.” When I take a photograph, I am capturing a moment that can never be duplicated. When you look back at photographs, you are indeed time traveling – traveling to a time that you once lived, and that you are momentarily reliving.
He also touched on how a skill set is a continuum. Times change and ideas change, but your skill set will never go out of style. Ideologies are always changing, but your skill set will never go out of style. With photography, I notice that styles change and ideas change, but the use of your camera and the functions behind it never change. We make the rules to break them, and that is why I love photography.
Photography by C'anna Rix 