A Curatorial Perspective on Two Objects

Cannupa Hanska Luger will construct an immersive monument to signal us back to Indigenous lifeways as critical knowledge systems needed in repairing human relationship with the Earth - for our own survival as a fragile species. This installation will be an effigy to Nature, in which an audience of all ages and experiences may be immersed in an environment Being - to pause and reflect on human relationship to Earth and the care and attention needed to heal our bonds with the natural world. Offering an alternative understanding of how our relationship to the environment has been biased towards western thought, his intention is for the audience to examine their learned separation from Nature and explore why they believe this notion as absolute. This installation will consume the interior walls and ceiling, as possible, of the gallery space to create interlocking creatures embodying Nature itself. This chimerical being will feel nurturing and grotesque at once, reminding us of the whole, the beauty and messiness required in healing our separation from natural order.

In relation to Luger’s practice, which addresses the balance and co-existence of natural order (a core philosophy in climate crisis) and its inextricable histories of indigenous knowledge, Ron Finley rejuvenates food prisons around the world through gardening, knowledge and togetherness. In 2010, Ron set out to fix a problem in his South Central neighborhood parkways: those often neglected dirt patches next to our streets, where he planted some vegetables. Soon after he was cited for gardening without a permit by the City of Los Angeles. Ron fought back and won. He started a petition with fellow green activists, and demanded the right to garden and grow food in his neighborhood. His work has empowered food sovereignty and the right of people to healthy food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, such as regenerative farming practices and the right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Both Luger and Finley’s practices confront the intersection of the climate crisis and social justice.

Exhibition page.