A WAY HOME
Mįhą́pmąk
How might we sculpt vessels to hold the future?
The objects and documentation pictured here represent my attempt to relearn the clay practices of my ancestors, primarily the Mandan. Through site-based research and materials testing, I am able to translate a deeper understanding of the limitations and possibilities of creating with our land. After digging, processing, testing, firing, observation, destroying, pulverizing, and making with clay over two years, I have only begun to understand the complex ancestral technologies of my Mandan ancestors. Yet, a memory has been woken in my muscles — I am at the beginning — honoring the knowledge of before, the experimentation of the present and practicing a way forward for future generations of my people. My hope is that A WAY HOME provides reflection to possible experiences for Indigenous people of my heritage to reacquaint themselves with clay.
A WAY HOME
For several years I have been experimenting with clay dug from home, adding it to other clay bodies to create objects and vessels built in my Mandan ancestral ways as well as advancing newer ceramic techniques. The merging of old and new ideas, building techniques and clay bodies come together to inform the artworks and ideas presented in this exhibition. This is a sharing of experience and form which represents a contemporary living continuum of Indigenous clay experience and resilience.
Mįhą́pmąk translates from Mandan language to mean nowadays (in modern times) and here we are. Each component of the exhibition leads into the next, honoring the knowledge of before, the experimentation of the present and guiding a way for the future generations of my people to see themselves represented in a continuum. I hope this work will inform and inspire all people but in particular I want it to inform Indigenous people who are looking to reconnect with their craft forms that have been destroyed, appropriated and all but lost due to centuries of colonization.
“Mįhą́pmąk” was a solo exhibition of 2020 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellow Cannupa Hanska Luger’s ongoing research project to recover his ancestral, Mandan clay traditions. The exhibition title, “Mįhą́pmąk,” translates from Mandan language to “nowadays (in modern times)” and “here we are.” This word is a declaration of presence and resilience. Luger has been conducting site-based research at the Fort Berthold Reservation in what is now known as North Dakota to relearn the clay practices of his ancestors. This exhibition includes ceramics, materials testing, research ephemera, and documentation of Luger’s process, demonstrating the crucial role of the artist-researcher in rebuilding and creating knowledge. This exhibition took place at the Center For Craft, Ashville, NC.