MĮHÁPMĄK

Center for Craft, Asheville, NC. August 29, 2022 - January 27, 2023

Mįhą́pmąk is a solo exhibition of Cannupa Hanska Luger’s ongoing work to recover and re-establish his ancestral Mandan clay traditions. The Mandan people of what is now known as North Dakota are the original inhabitants of the clay-rich lands that stretch over the Missouri River basin and across the plains. Their centuries-old clay traditions and technologies range from functional vessels to earth-built homes. Colonialism decimated Mandan populations in the 18th century and Luger’s artistic research is an urgent response to recover this critical indigenous knowledge. The exhibition includes ceramics, research ephemera, and documentation from the past two years of his ongoing investigation, which ​​was conducted in museum collections, in the cut banks and clay veins of the Fort Berthold Reservation, with community elders, and through the materiality of the clay itself, asserting the role of the artist-researcher in rebuilding and creating knowledge. The exhibition’s title, “Mįhą́pmąk,”  translates from  Mandan language to “nowadays (in modern times)” and “here we are.” This word is a declaration of presence and resilience.

Artist: Cannupa Hanska Luger

Press: Reviewed in Art in America

Role: Organizing curator, exhibition management, exhibition design, curatorial research, interpretive writing, installation

Photography by Black Box Photography, ℅ Center for Craft