James Luna: Take a Picture with a Real Indian

Video clips give a sense of James Luna’s "Take a Picture of a Real Indian," but the photographs of the people who accept his invitation are integral to the work. Yesterday's performance is one of the rare times Luna has presented the piece outside a museum, and the setting was inspired. The Columbus memorial, a park-like traffic circle adjacent to the Capitol grounds, provided a second ring of audience-participants snapping photographs from taxis and tour buses. And by collapsing the 150 feet between the Columbus fountain and the monumental train station in the background, the camera revealed Washington's secret wish to dress in colonial baroque. 

James Luna and Jane Chun

Rosalie Favell Faces the Camera

     
 
Rosalie Favell is having a moment! On September 16th she was in New York for the opening of HIDE, Part 2, which features her series, Facing the Camera (2008-present) a growing collection of portraits of Indigenous artists and curators. The following week she was in Washington, DC at NMAI for the opening of Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection, organized by Rebecca Trautmann, which features one of Favell's potent self-portraits titled “If only you could love me…” (2003): two very different approaches to portraiture by the Métis artist from Winnipeg.

“If only you could love me…” (above) is from the series, Plain(s) Warrior Artist (1999-2003) which draws heavily from pop culture, placing her likeness within scenes from movies and television shows such as Zena: Warrior Princess and Star Trek, as well as seamlessly blending historic and family photos. Each work is a personal comment on some aspect of her identity or biography. Those of you familiar with Western art might recognize that this work is a re-interpretation of Frida Kahlo’s haunting, Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair (1940) painted after her stormy divorce from Diego Rivera. Like Kahlo’s painting, Favell’s portrait is one of anguish and despondency; both show themselves surrounded by their shorn hair, dressed in men’s suit, and looking unwaveringly at the viewer. But while they both reflect on a lover’s rejection, Favell’s also explicitly references her own struggles with gender identity.