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{{Short description|Indigenous performance artist}}
{{Infobox artist
{{Infobox artist
| name = James Luna
| name = James Luna
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| death_date = {{death date and age |2018|3|4|1950|2|6|mf=yes}}
| death_date = {{death date and age |2018|3|4|1950|2|6|mf=yes}}
| death_place = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]
| death_place = [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]
| nationality = [[La Jolla Luiseño]]-[[Ipi people|Ipi]]-[[Mexican-American]]
| nationality = [[La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians]], American
| movement = Indigenous [[performance art]]
| movement = Indigenous [[performance art]]
| awards = Eiteljorg Fellowship (2007)[[Guggenheim Fellowship]] (2017)
| awards = Eiteljorg Fellowship (2007), [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] (2017)
| elected =
| elected =
| patrons =
| patrons =
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}}
}}


'''James Luna''' (February 9, 1950{{snd}}March 4, 2018<ref name=faam>{{cite web|last1=Pratt|first1=Stacy|title=Noted Indigenous performance artist James Luna walks on|url=http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/james-luna-walks/|website=[[First American Art Magazine]]|access-date=6 March 2018|date=2018-03-06}}</ref>) was a [[Payómkawichum]], [[Ipi people|Ipi]], and [[Mexican-American]] [[performance artist]], photographer and multimedia [[installation artist]]. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibitions depict [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]].<ref name=":5" /> With recurring themes of [[multiculturalism]], [[alcoholism]], and [[colonialism]], his work was often comedic and theatrical in nature.<ref name=":2" /> In 2017 he was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/james-luna/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}}James Luna|website=www.gf.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>
'''James Luna''' (February 9, 1950{{snd}}March 4, 2018<ref name=faam>{{cite web|last1=Pratt|first1=Stacy |title=Noted Indigenous performance artist James Luna walks on |url=http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/james-luna-walks/|website=[[First American Art Magazine]] |access-date=6 March 2018|date=2018-03-06}}</ref>) was a [[Puyukitchum]], [[Ipai]], and [[Mexican Americans|Mexican-American]] [[performance artist]], photographer and multimedia [[installation artist]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Remembering Artist James Luna (1950-2018) |url=https://creative-capital.org/2018/03/14/remembering-artist-james-luna-1950-2018/ |website=Creative Capital |access-date=26 June 2023}}</ref> His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibitions depict [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]].<ref name=":5" /> With recurring themes of [[multiculturalism]], [[alcoholism]], and [[colonialism]], his work was often comedic and theatrical in nature.<ref name=":2" /> In 2017 he was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/james-luna/|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}}James Luna|website=www.gf.org|language=en-US|access-date=2017-04-24}}</ref>


==Background==
==Background==
Luna was born in 1950 in [[Orange, California]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ocma.net/artist2/james-luna |title=Archived copy |access-date=2018-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310201004/https://www.ocma.net/artist2/james-luna |archive-date=2018-03-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He moved to the [[La Jolla Indian Reservation]] in [[California]] in 1975. In 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the [[University of California, Irvine]], and in 1983, he earned a Master of Science degree in counseling at [[San Diego State University]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Changing Hands: Art without Reservation|last=McFadden|first=David R.|publisher=Museum of Arts and Design|year=2005|isbn=978-0-295-98781-1|location=New York}}</ref> In 2011, he received an [[honorary doctoral degree]] from the [[Institute of American Indian Arts]].
Luna was born in 1950 in [[Orange, California]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ocma.net/artist2/james-luna |title=James Luna &#124; OCMA &#124; Orange County Museum of Art |access-date=2018-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180310201004/https://www.ocma.net/artist2/james-luna |archive-date=2018-03-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He moved to the [[La Jolla Indian Reservation]] in [[California]] in 1975. In 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the [[University of California, Irvine]], and in 1983, he earned a Master of Science degree in counseling at [[San Diego State University]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|title=Changing Hands: Art without Reservation|last=McFadden|first=David R.|publisher=Museum of Arts and Design|year=2005|isbn=978-0-295-98781-1|location=New York}}</ref> In 2011, he received an [[honorary doctoral degree]] from the [[Institute of American Indian Arts]].


Luna was an active community member of the [[La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians|La Jolla Indian reservation.]] He served as the director of the tribe's education center in 1987, and the community was often a focal point of his photography and writing.<ref name=":1" /> He taught art at the [[University of California, San Diego]] and spent 25 years as a full-time academic counselor at [[Palomar College]] in [[San Marcos, California]].<ref name=":6">[http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf Biography and Bibliography][http://www.jamesluna.com/ .] ''James Luna.'' (retrieved 21 April 2009)</ref>
Luna was an active community member of the [[La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians|La Jolla Indian reservation.]] He served as the director of the tribe's education center in 1987, and the community was often a focal point of his photography and writing.<ref name=":1" /> He taught art at the [[University of California, San Diego]] and spent 25 years as a full-time academic counselor at [[Palomar College]] in [[San Marcos, California]].<ref name=":6">[http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf Biography and Bibliography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202035826/http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |date=2017-02-02 }}[http://www.jamesluna.com/ .] ''James Luna.'' (retrieved 21 April 2009)</ref>


==Artwork==
==Artwork==
A self-proclaimed "American Indian Ceremonial Clown", "Culture Warrior," and "Tribal Citizen",<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Pablo Tac, Indigenous Scholar: Writing on Luiseño Language and Colonial History|last=Haas|first=Lisbeth|publisher=The University of Chicago Press}}<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> Luna's artwork was known for challenging racial categories and exposing outmoded, Eurocentric ways in which museums have displayed Native American Indians as parts of [[natural history]], rather than as living members of contemporary society.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|url=https://daily.jstor.org/native-disruptions-with-artist-james-luna|title=How Luiseno Indian Artist James Luna Resists Cultural Appropriation|date=2015-12-25|work=JSTOR Daily|access-date=2017-03-13}}</ref>
A self-proclaimed "American Indian Ceremonial Clown", "Culture Warrior," and "Tribal Citizen",<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Pablo Tac, Indigenous Scholar: Writing on Luiseño Language and Colonial History|last=Haas|first=Lisbeth|publisher=The University of Chicago Press}}<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> Luna's artwork was known for challenging racial categories and exposing outmoded, Eurocentric ways in which museums have displayed Native American Indians as parts of [[natural history]], rather than as living members of contemporary society.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news|url=https://daily.jstor.org/native-disruptions-with-artist-james-luna|title=How Luiseno Indian Artist James Luna Resists Cultural Appropriation|date=2015-12-25|work=JSTOR Daily|access-date=2017-03-13}}</ref>


While Luna began his art career as a painter, he soon branched out into performance and installation art, which he did for over three decades.<ref name=":4"/> He used objects, references to American popular culture, and his own body in his work.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Blocker|first=Jane|year=2009|title=Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Testimony|url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/georgetown/detail.action?docID=1042184|journal=University of Minnesota Press|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> He performed over 58 solo exhibitions starting in 1981 and partook in group exhibitions and projects across the United States and the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |title=Resume |website=nmai.si.edu}}</ref> His artistry was often referred to as both disruptive<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Fernandez-Sacco|first=E.|year=2001|title=Check your baggage: Resisting whiteness in art history|journal=Art Journal|volume=60|issue=4|pages=58–61|doi=10.1080/00043249.2001.10792096}}</ref> and radical for its stark confrontations with [[colonialism]], [[violence]], [[sexuality]], and [[Identity (social science)|identity]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Saracho|first=A. R.|year=2014|title=Identity and Authenticity: A study of the contemporary Native American experience through the works of Fritz Scholder and James Luna|journal=ProQuest Dissertations and Theses}}</ref> Some of his best known pieces are:
While Luna began his art career as a painter, he soon branched out into performance and installation art, which he did for over three decades.<ref name=":4"/> He used objects, references to American popular culture, and his own body in his work.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Blocker|first=Jane|year=2009|title=Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Testimony|url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/georgetown/detail.action?docID=1042184|journal=University of Minnesota Press|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref> He performed over 58 solo exhibitions starting in 1981 and partook in group exhibitions and projects across the United States and the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |title=Resume |website=nmai.si.edu |access-date=2017-01-26 |archive-date=2017-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202035826/http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> His artistry was often referred to as both disruptive<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Fernandez-Sacco|first=E.|year=2001|title=Check your baggage: Resisting whiteness in art history|journal=Art Journal|volume=60|issue=4|pages=58–61|doi=10.1080/00043249.2001.10792096|s2cid=191380094}}</ref> and radical for its stark confrontations with [[colonialism]], [[violence]], [[sexuality]], and [[Identity (social science)|identity]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Saracho|first=A. R.|year=2014|title=Identity and Authenticity: A study of the contemporary Native American experience through the works of Fritz Scholder and James Luna|journal=ProQuest Dissertations and Theses}}</ref> Some of his best known pieces are:


===''The Artifact Piece'' (1987/1990)===
=== ''The Artifact Piece'' (1987–1990) ===
In ''The Artifact Piece'' (1987) at the [[San Diego Museum of Man]], Luna lay naked except for a [[loincloth]] and still in a display case filled with sand and artifacts, such as Luna's favorite music and books, as well as legal papers and labels describing his scars.<ref name=":2" /> The work looked like a museum exhibit and was set in a hall dedicated to traditional ethnographic displays. The marks and scars on his body were acquired while drinking, fighting, or in accidents. Critics praised Luna's ability to challenge conventional understandings and displays of the Native American identities and presumptions about his own personhood by putting his own body on display.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Art history|last=Stokstad|first=Marilyn|last2=Cothren|first2=Michael Watt|date=2011-01-01|publisher=Pearson/Prentice Hall|isbn=9780205744220|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|pages=1113|language=en|oclc = 499179296}}</ref> He performed "The Artifact Piece" in 1990 at ''The Decade Show'' in New York City.<ref name=":0"/>
In ''The Artifact Piece'' (1987) at the [[San Diego Museum of Man]], Luna lay naked except for a [[loincloth]] and still in a display case filled with sand and artifacts, such as Luna's favorite music and books, as well as legal papers and labels describing his scars.<ref name=":2" /> The work looked like a museum exhibit and was set in a hall dedicated to traditional ethnographic displays. The marks and scars on his body were acquired while drinking, fighting, or in accidents. Critics praised Luna's ability to challenge conventional understandings and displays of the Native American identities and presumptions about his own personhood by putting his own body on display.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Art history|last1=Stokstad|first1=Marilyn|last2=Cothren|first2=Michael Watt|date=2011-01-01|publisher=Pearson/Prentice Hall|isbn=9780205744220|location=Upper Saddle River, NJ|pages=1113|language=en|oclc = 499179296}}</ref> He performed "The Artifact Piece" in 1990 at ''The Decade Show'' in New York City.<ref name=":0"/>


===''Take a Picture With a Real Indian'' (1991–93)===
===''Take a Picture With a Real Indian'' (1991–93)===
In the early 1990s, Luna stood outside of Washington DC's [[Union Station (Washington, D.C.)|Union Station]] and performed ''Take a Picture With a Real Indian''. Luna describes the performance by saying:<blockquote>Standing at a podium wearing an outfit, I announce: “Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here, in Washington, D.C. on this beautiful Monday morning, on this holiday called Columbus Day. America loves to say ‘her Indians.’ America loves to see us dance for them. America likes our arts and crafts. America likes to name cars and trucks after our tribes. Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here today, on this sunny day here in Washington, D.C.” And then I just stand there. Eventually, one person will pose with me. After that they just start lining up. I’ll do that for a while until I get mad enough or humiliated enough.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-james-luna-74252076/|title=Q and A with James Luna|last=Righthand|first=Jess|date=May 2011|website=smithsonian|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref></blockquote> In utilizing and engaging a public audience, Luna taps into common cultural commodification of Native American culture. Such a trend manifests in the idea of the "McIndian"; the idea that Native culture is something that can be massed produced, consumed, and enjoyed without acknowledging the deep history of oppression Native Americans have endured.<ref name=":2"/>
In the early 1990s, Luna stood outside of Washington DC's [[Union Station (Washington, D.C.)|Union Station]] and performed ''Take a Picture With a Real Indian''. Luna describes the performance by saying:{{blockquote|Standing at a podium wearing an outfit, I announce: "Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here, in Washington, D.C., on this beautiful Monday morning, on this holiday called Columbus Day. America loves to say 'her Indians.' America loves to see us dance for them. America likes our arts and crafts. America likes to name cars and trucks after our tribes. Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here today, on this sunny day here in Washington, D.C." And then I just stand there. Eventually, one person will pose with me. After that they just start lining up. I'll do that for a while until I get mad enough or humiliated enough.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-james-luna-74252076/|title=Q and A with James Luna|last=Righthand|first=Jess|date=May 2011|website=smithsonian|access-date=March 9, 2018}}</ref>}} In utilizing and engaging a public audience, Luna taps into common cultural commodification of Native American culture. Such a trend manifests in the idea of the "McIndian"; the idea that Native culture is something that can be massed produced, consumed, and enjoyed without acknowledging the deep history of oppression Native Americans have endured.<ref name=":2"/>


===''In My Dreams: A Surreal, Post-Indian, Subterranean Blues Experience'' (1996)===
===''In My Dreams: A Surreal, Post-Indian, Subterranean Blues Experience'' (1996)===
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==Honors and awards==
==Honors and awards==
Throughout his career, Luna received many awards. Including:
Throughout his career, Luna received many awards. Including:
* 1998: [[LACE Fellowship]] ([[Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions]], California)
* 1988: [[LACE Fellowship]] ([[Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions]], California)
* 1998: C.O.M.B.O Grant for Literary Studies (San Diego, California)
* 1998: C.O.M.B.O Grant for Literary Studies (San Diego, California)
* 1991: [[Bessie Awards|Bessie Creator Award]] [[Dance Theater Workshop|(New York Dance Theatre Workshop]], New York)
* 1991: [[Bessie Awards|Bessie Creator Award]] [[Dance Theater Workshop|(New York Dance Theatre Workshop]], New York)
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* 1994: Faculty Residency ([[Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture|Skowhegan School of Painting]]; Skowhegan, Maine)
* 1994: Faculty Residency ([[Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture|Skowhegan School of Painting]]; Skowhegan, Maine)
* 1994: Distinguished Visiting Faculty Award ([[University of California, Davis]])
* 1994: Distinguished Visiting Faculty Award ([[University of California, Davis]])
* 1995: [[Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium]] Video Grant, “Bringing it All Back Home” video project
* 1995: [[Native American Public Broadcasting Consortium]] Video Grant, "Bringing it All Back Home" video project
* 2000: [[Andrea Frank Foundation Grant]]
* 2000: [[Andrea Frank Foundation Grant]]
* 2000: [[Arts International Grant]]
* 2000: [[Arts International Grant]]
* 2001: [[U.S.–Japan Creative Arts’ Program Fellowship]], [[Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature|Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission]]
* 2001: [[U.S.–Japan Creative Arts' Program Fellowship]], [[Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for the Translation of Japanese Literature|Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission]]
* 2001: University of California Regents Lecture ([[University of California, San Diego]])<ref>http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf</ref>
* 2001: University of California Regents Lecture ([[University of California, San Diego]])<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2017-01-26 |archive-date=2017-02-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202035826/http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/files/luna_bibliography.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* 2001: Dorantes Lecturer ([[Santa Barbara City College]], California)
* 2001: Dorantes Lecturer ([[Santa Barbara City College]], California)
* 2002: [[Creative Capital]] Award<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.creative-capital.org/projects/view/139 |title = Surreal Post Indian Blues & the Origin of the Sun and the Moon}}</ref>
* 2002: [[Creative Capital]] Award<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.creative-capital.org/projects/view/139 |title = Surreal Post Indian Blues & the Origin of the Sun and the Moon}}</ref>
* 2007: [[Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art|Eiteljorg Fellowship]] for Native American Fine Art<ref name=":6" />
* 2007: [[Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art|Eiteljorg Fellowship]] for Native American Fine Art<ref name=":6" />
* 2011: Honorary PhD from the [[Institute of American Indian Arts]], in Santa Fe, New Mexico<ref>{{cite web|url=https://iaia.edu/noted-multimedia-performance-artist-james-luna-passes-away-67/|title=Noted Multimedia and Performance Artist James Luna Passes Away at 67 > Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)|date=6 March 2018}}</ref>
* 2011: Honorary PhD from the [[Institute of American Indian Arts]], in Santa Fe, New Mexico<ref>{{cite web|url=https://iaia.edu/noted-multimedia-performance-artist-james-luna-passes-away-67/|title=Noted Multimedia and Performance Artist James Luna Passes Away at 67 > Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)|date=6 March 2018}}</ref>
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==Quotes==
==Quotes==
<blockquote>"I truly live in two worlds. This 'two world' concept once posed too much ambiguity for me, as I felt torn as to whom I was. In maturity I have come to find it the source of my power, as I can easily move between these two places and not feel that I have to be one or the other, that I am an Indian in this modern society.<ref name=":4" /></blockquote><blockquote>"Yes. The people are getting up there to have their picture taken with an Indian, just like they would have their picture taken with the bull statue on Wall Street. It’s there for the taking. Indian people always have been fair game, and I don’t think people quite understand that we’re not game. Just because I’m an identifiable Indian, it doesn’t mean I’m there for the taking.</blockquote><blockquote>But in the long run I’m making a statement for me, and through me, about people’s interaction with American Indians, and the selective romanticization of us."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-james-luna-74252076/|title=Q & A: James Luna: The Native American Artist Talks about his "Take a Picture with a Real Indian" Performance|last=Righthand|first=Jess|date=January 2011|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref></blockquote>
{{blockquote|"I truly live in two worlds. This 'two world' concept once posed too much ambiguity for me, as I felt torn as to whom I was. In maturity I have come to find it the source of my power, as I can easily move between these two places and not feel that I have to be one or the other, that I am an Indian in this modern society.<ref name=":4" />}}{{blockquote|"Yes. The people are getting up there to have their picture taken with an Indian, just like they would have their picture taken with the bull statue on Wall Street. It's there for the taking. Indian people always have been fair game, and I don't think people quite understand that we're not game. Just because I'm an identifiable Indian, it doesn't mean I'm there for the taking.}}{{blockquote|But in the long run I'm making a statement for me, and through me, about people's interaction with American Indians, and the selective romanticization of us."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/q-and-a-james-luna-74252076/|title=Q & A: James Luna: The Native American Artist Talks about his "Take a Picture with a Real Indian" Performance|last=Righthand|first=Jess|date=January 2011|website=Smithsonian Magazine}}</ref>}}


==Death==
==Death==
Luna had a fatal [[heart attack]] in [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], on March 4, 2018, aged 68.<ref name=faam/>
Luna had a fatal [[heart attack]] in [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], on March 4, 2018, at the age of 68.<ref name=faam/>


== See also ==
== See also ==
*[[List of Native American artists]]
* [[List of Native American artists]]
*[[List of indigenous artists of the Americas]]
* [[List of indigenous artists of the Americas]]
*[[Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas]]
* [[Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas]]


==References==
==References==
Line 85: Line 86:
== External links ==
== External links ==
* [http://www.jamesluna.com/ The Performance Art of James Luna], official site
* [http://www.jamesluna.com/ The Performance Art of James Luna], official site
* [http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/ James Luna, Emendatio, National Museum of the American Indian]
* [http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/ James Luna, Emendatio, National Museum of the American Indian] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413220352/http://www.nmai.si.edu/exhibitions/emendatio/ |date=2009-04-13 }}
*[http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/james-luna/ James Luna], Vision Project, by Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds
*[http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/james-luna/ James Luna], Vision Project, by Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds
*James Luna, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/777344?mag=native-disruptions-with-artist-james-luna&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "I've Always Wanted to be an American Indian"]
*James Luna, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/777344?mag=native-disruptions-with-artist-james-luna&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents "I've Always Wanted to be an American Indian"]
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[[Category:Luiseño people]]
[[Category:Luiseño people]]
[[Category:Native American male artists]]
[[Category:Native American male artists]]
⚫
[[Category:21st-century Native Americans]]
[[Category:People from Orange, California]]
[[Category:People from Orange, California]]
[[Category:University of California, Irvine alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Irvine alumni]]
[[Category:San Diego State University alumni]]
[[Category:San Diego State University alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Native Americans]]
[[Category:20th-century American photographers]]
[[Category:20th-century American artists]]
[[Category:20th-century Native American artists]]
[[Category:21st-century American artists]]
[[Category:21st-century American photographers]]
[[Category:University of California, San Diego faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, San Diego faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century American male artists]]
[[Category:Native American photographers]]
[[Category:21st-century American writers]]
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[[Category:21st-century Native American writers]]

Latest revision as of 21:49, 11 January 2024

James Luna
James Luna in 2011
Born(1950-02-09)February 9, 1950
Orange, California, US
DiedMarch 4, 2018(2018-03-04) (aged 68)
New Orleans, Louisiana
NationalityLa Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, American
EducationBFA University of California, MS San Diego State University, Honorary PhD Institute of American Indian Arts
Known forPerformance, installation
Notable workThe Artifact Piece (1987/1990), Take A Picture With A Real Indian (1993), Emendatio (2005)
MovementIndigenous performance art
AwardsEiteljorg Fellowship (2007), Guggenheim Fellowship (2017)

James Luna (February 9, 1950 – March 4, 2018[1]) was a Puyukitchum, Ipai, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist.[2] His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibitions depict Native Americans.[3] With recurring themes of multiculturalism, alcoholism, and colonialism, his work was often comedic and theatrical in nature.[4] In 2017 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[5]

Background

[edit]

Luna was born in 1950 in Orange, California.[6] He moved to the La Jolla Indian Reservation in California in 1975. In 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine, and in 1983, he earned a Master of Science degree in counseling at San Diego State University.[7] In 2011, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Luna was an active community member of the La Jolla Indian reservation. He served as the director of the tribe's education center in 1987, and the community was often a focal point of his photography and writing.[8] He taught art at the University of California, San Diego and spent 25 years as a full-time academic counselor at Palomar College in San Marcos, California.[9]

Artwork

[edit]

A self-proclaimed "American Indian Ceremonial Clown", "Culture Warrior," and "Tribal Citizen",[8] Luna's artwork was known for challenging racial categories and exposing outmoded, Eurocentric ways in which museums have displayed Native American Indians as parts of natural history, rather than as living members of contemporary society.[3]

While Luna began his art career as a painter, he soon branched out into performance and installation art, which he did for over three decades.[7] He used objects, references to American popular culture, and his own body in his work.[4] He performed over 58 solo exhibitions starting in 1981 and partook in group exhibitions and projects across the United States and the world.[10] His artistry was often referred to as both disruptive[11] and radical for its stark confrontations with colonialism, violence, sexuality, and identity.[12] Some of his best known pieces are:

The Artifact Piece (1987–1990)

[edit]

In The Artifact Piece (1987) at the San Diego Museum of Man, Luna lay naked except for a loincloth and still in a display case filled with sand and artifacts, such as Luna's favorite music and books, as well as legal papers and labels describing his scars.[4] The work looked like a museum exhibit and was set in a hall dedicated to traditional ethnographic displays. The marks and scars on his body were acquired while drinking, fighting, or in accidents. Critics praised Luna's ability to challenge conventional understandings and displays of the Native American identities and presumptions about his own personhood by putting his own body on display.[13] He performed "The Artifact Piece" in 1990 at The Decade Show in New York City.[13]

Take a Picture With a Real Indian (1991–93)

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In the early 1990s, Luna stood outside of Washington DC's Union Station and performed Take a Picture With a Real Indian. Luna describes the performance by saying:

Standing at a podium wearing an outfit, I announce: "Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here, in Washington, D.C., on this beautiful Monday morning, on this holiday called Columbus Day. America loves to say 'her Indians.' America loves to see us dance for them. America likes our arts and crafts. America likes to name cars and trucks after our tribes. Take a picture with a real Indian. Take a picture here today, on this sunny day here in Washington, D.C." And then I just stand there. Eventually, one person will pose with me. After that they just start lining up. I'll do that for a while until I get mad enough or humiliated enough.[14]

In utilizing and engaging a public audience, Luna taps into common cultural commodification of Native American culture. Such a trend manifests in the idea of the "McIndian"; the idea that Native culture is something that can be massed produced, consumed, and enjoyed without acknowledging the deep history of oppression Native Americans have endured.[4]

In My Dreams: A Surreal, Post-Indian, Subterranean Blues Experience (1996)

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In this performance, Luna is acclaimed for having challenged the trope that Native Americans are "peoples of memory" in ways that white culture may envy as being more purely spiritual.[11] In one scene, he performs a "traditional" dance with crutches to reveal how white demand for Native performance is both limiting and inauthentic. In another, he puts his diabetes on display, giving himself insulin on stage which is said by critics to be emblematic of the binary of the "wild" but "controlled" Native American.[4]

His final scene in this performance is a tribute to Dean Martin, which serves to reverse white tributes to Native peoples back on to his white audiences. By having a Native American Indian idolize a white person in a way that is relatively fanatic, Luna revealed the problematic manner in which white people can idolize Native American figures.[citation needed]

Emendatio (2005)

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In 2005 the National Museum of the American Indian sponsored him to participate in the Venice Biennale.[7] The piece he created, Emendatio, included three installations, Spinning Woman, Apparitions: Past and Present, and The Chapel for Pablo Tac, as well a personal performance in Venice, Renewal dedicated to Pablo Tac (1822–1841), a Luiseño Indian author and scholar, who went to study in Rome, where he died.[4]

Utilizing cultural aspects of both the Lusieno people and his own family, Luna's installations and performance expose the affects that the poor translation of Native identities as well as globalization has had in oppressing narratives of Native American memory while inspiring both "white envy" and "liberal guilt".[4]

Honors and awards

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Throughout his career, Luna received many awards. Including:

Quotes

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"I truly live in two worlds. This 'two world' concept once posed too much ambiguity for me, as I felt torn as to whom I was. In maturity I have come to find it the source of my power, as I can easily move between these two places and not feel that I have to be one or the other, that I am an Indian in this modern society.[7]

"Yes. The people are getting up there to have their picture taken with an Indian, just like they would have their picture taken with the bull statue on Wall Street. It's there for the taking. Indian people always have been fair game, and I don't think people quite understand that we're not game. Just because I'm an identifiable Indian, it doesn't mean I'm there for the taking.

But in the long run I'm making a statement for me, and through me, about people's interaction with American Indians, and the selective romanticization of us."[19]

Death

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Luna had a fatal heart attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 4, 2018, at the age of 68.[1]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Pratt, Stacy (2018-03-06). "Noted Indigenous performance artist James Luna walks on". First American Art Magazine. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Remembering Artist James Luna (1950-2018)". Creative Capital. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b "How Luiseno Indian Artist James Luna Resists Cultural Appropriation". JSTOR Daily. 2015-12-25. Retrieved 2017-03-13.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Blocker, Jane (2009). "Seeing Witness: Visuality and the Ethics of Testimony". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  5. ^ a b "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation |James Luna". www.gf.org. Retrieved 2017-04-24.
  6. ^ "James Luna | OCMA | Orange County Museum of Art". Archived from the original on 2018-03-10. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  7. ^ a b c d McFadden, David R. (2005). Changing Hands: Art without Reservation. New York: Museum of Arts and Design. ISBN 978-0-295-98781-1.
  8. ^ a b Haas, Lisbeth. Pablo Tac, Indigenous Scholar: Writing on Luiseño Language and Colonial History. The University of Chicago Press.
  9. ^ a b Biography and Bibliography Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. James Luna. (retrieved 21 April 2009)
  10. ^ "Resume" (PDF). nmai.si.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-26.
  11. ^ a b Fernandez-Sacco, E. (2001). "Check your baggage: Resisting whiteness in art history". Art Journal. 60 (4): 58–61. doi:10.1080/00043249.2001.10792096. S2CID 191380094.
  12. ^ Saracho, A. R. (2014). "Identity and Authenticity: A study of the contemporary Native American experience through the works of Fritz Scholder and James Luna". ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
  13. ^ a b Stokstad, Marilyn; Cothren, Michael Watt (2011-01-01). Art history. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. p. 1113. ISBN 9780205744220. OCLC 499179296.
  14. ^ Righthand, Jess (May 2011). "Q and A with James Luna". smithsonian. Retrieved March 9, 2018.
  15. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  16. ^ "Surreal Post Indian Blues & the Origin of the Sun and the Moon".
  17. ^ "Noted Multimedia and Performance Artist James Luna Passes Away at 67 > Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA)". 6 March 2018.
  18. ^ "James Luna - Native Arts and Cultures Foundation". 6 August 2015.
  19. ^ Righthand, Jess (January 2011). "Q & A: James Luna: The Native American Artist Talks about his "Take a Picture with a Real Indian" Performance". Smithsonian Magazine.
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