2024 Whitney Biennial: Even Better Than the Real Thing
Uŋziwoslal Wašičuta
In the ongoing series, Future Ancestral Technologies (FAT), Luger presents fiction as a source of inspiration for imagining a future that honors the spiral of time. The trans-disciplinary works featured in FAT, offer a symbiotic future where Indigenous epistemologies on interconnected wisdoms are paramount to the thriving of all beings. The installation, Uŋziwoslal Wašičuta, memorializes ideologies on survival offered by the technologies of Northern Plains people. Sustainable solutions to human survival present us with the opportunity to see the world through Indigenous perspectives outside of colonial structures.
Using a variety of materials such as crenolyn, steel, ceramic, nylon, and fiberglass, Luger creates an installation that immerses the viewer in an intimate space where dreams are containers for collective building. The installation asks us to consider if our current world is upside down, what direction might our future world face?
Cannupa Hanska Luger, Uŋziwoslal Wašičuta (from the series Future Ancestral Technologies), 2021. Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 20 - August 11, 2024). Photograph by Ron Amstutz.