"Upon entering Cannupa Hanska Luger's 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 vessels that some Plains tribes historically used and orienting us within the context of the Joslyn's location in Omaha along the Missouri River, the museum's art collection, and Luger's Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota lineage."
"Between 1832 and 1834, Bodmer accompanied German naturalist Prince Maximilian of Wied 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."
Visitors enter an immersive environment with overhead frames of bull boats, evoking small vessels used by some Plains tribes and situating the work within Omaha and the Missouri River. Cannupa Hanska Luger connects his Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota lineage to interdisciplinary practices including clay, sculpture, performance, textiles, and video. Luger draws inspiration from Karl Bodmer's 1832–1834 North American expedition watercolors and subsequent European lithographs. Bodmer's portraits emphasize ceremonial regalia and document Indigenous tribal identity. Printmakers later altered certain images—"correcting" perceived mistakes—so that some lithograph fixes misrepresent realities that the original watercolors reveal. The relationship between fixed printed records and living oral traditions informs the project.
Read at Colossal
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]