The Artifact Piece, 1987/1990

In his performances and installations, for the last three decades James Luna has engaged in a provocative and humorous way with the problems and issues facing contemporary Native Americans. Luna draws on personal observations and experiences for his artistic work. The artist has been living and working in La Jolla Reservation since 1975.
For the performance The Artifact Piece, clad in a loincloth Luna reclined within a glass showcase filled with sand. Around him were testimonials of his life: his diploma, his divorce papers as well as personal objects and various mementos from his schooldays. Signs positioned within the showcase indicate his name, and comment on the scars on his body. The installation’s arrangement is reminiscent of dioramas typically used in ethnological museums for visualizing the life of extinct societies. By presenting himself as an artifact, as a lifeless object, Luna unmasks in a satirical way the one-sided and stereotypical presentation of Native Americans, as these are also presented in in museums. When confronted by the artist, the objectivizing viewpoint – which locates Native American culture firmly in the past trivializing and romanticizing it as an extinct form of living – is revealed as an act of marginalization that persists to this day. (EA)