Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger

Collaboration is an active agent in this work, not simply a means to an end.

Marie Watt

On September 25, the Carlos Museum will open the exhibition, Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger. This is the first exhibition to feature together the work of Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, two leading Indigenous contemporary artists whose processes focus on collaborative artmaking. Each/Other features over two dozen mixed-media sculptures, wall hangings, and large-scale installation works by Watt and Luger, along with a new monumental artist-guided community artwork. While each artist’s practice is rooted in collaboration, they have never before worked together or been exhibited alongside one another in a way that allows audiences to see both the similarities and contrasts in their work. Watt, who resides in Portland, Oregon, is a citizen of the Seneca Nation and has German-Scots ancestry. Luger, who is based in New Mexico, is a citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) of Fort Berthold and has Lakota and European ancestry. Each/Other was organized by the Denver Art Museum, where it was on display this past summer. The Carlos Museum is the second venue on the exhibition's tour of the United States. Emory students and faculty, as well as Carlos Museum docents, patrons, and staff members, had an opportunity to participate in the collaborative creation of three of the pieces that will be on display. Participants embroidered bandanas that were incorporated into the new, artistguided community artwork, “Each/ Other,” a collaborative project of both Watt and Luger. Emory students also created clay beads that became part of the 4,000 total beads in “Every One,” a piece by Cannupa Hanska Luger focusing on missing and murdered Indigenous persons. For more about the creation and meaning of “Every One,” please visit cannupahanska.com/mmiwqtbeadproject. Community participants also donated blankets and accompanying stories for Watt’s new monumental sculpture in her “Blanket Stories” series. For more about the blanket contributions and stories, please visit denverartmuseum.org/en/blog/contribute-blanket-story-new-artworkby-marie-watt. The artists ask viewers of the exhibition to look beyond the idea of art as a noun and instead consider the collaborative processes of making and search for signs of the different hands that created the artworks. They encourage audiences to think about the people who sewed or formed beads or shared stories.

Emory University was founded in 1836 on the historic lands of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, 15 years after the First Treaty of Indian Springs (1821) dispossessed the Muscogee people of land, including both Emory campus locations. After this treaty, many Muscogee people relocated to Alabama and were then forcibly removed to present-day Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears in

above left: Portrait of Marie Watt taken by Sam Gehrke. above right: Marie Watt, Companion Species: Assembly (Auntie) / Companion Species: Assembly (Guardian Tree), 2020. Reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, thread, cotton twill, tape, and tin jingles. Tia Collection, Santa Fe, NM, Courtesy of Marc Straus Gallery, New York. © Marie Watt. Photograph by Kevin McConnell.

Art is a verb, not a noun. Art is a practice, it’s an activity. It is an action.

Cannupa Hanska Luger

1836. This acknowledgment of the history of the land is intended to help put a better perspective on the Each/ Other exhibition and Emory’s commitment to honor Indigenous nations and peoples, both locally and beyond. The Carlos Museum is honored to present this exhibition that centers Indigenous knowledge, creativity, and collaboration. A full list of lectures and other related programming that highlight themes in the exhibition will be announced soon. Be sure to stop by the museum’s Bookshop to browse a wide selection of titles on Native American art and history and to pick up a copy of the companion catalogue to the exhibition.

Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger is organized by the Denver Art Museum and presented with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, The Robert Lehman Foundation, Stelo, and Native Arts and Culture Foundation. In Atlanta, this exhibition has been made possible with generous support from the Charles S. Ackerman Fund, the Carlos Museum’s National Leadership Board, Lauren Giles, Gail and Clark Goodwin, the Grace W. Blanton Lecture Fund, the LUBO Fund, and Sarah Hill. Z

above left: Portrait Cannupa Hanska Luger taken in 2019 by Brendan George Ko. above right: Cannupa Hanska Luger, This Is Not A Snake, 2017. Ceramic, oil drums, ammunition cans, and found objects; 78 x 36 x 600 in. Cannupa Hanska Luger and Kathy Elkwoman Whitman, The One Who Checks & The One Who Balances, 2018. Ceramic, riot gear, afghan, wool surplus industrial felt, beadwork by Kathy Elkwoman Whitman; 6-1/2 ft x 12 in x 8 in (each, approximate). © Cannupa Hanska Luger. Image courtesy of the artist. right: Cannupa Hanska Luger and Marie Watt, Each/Other, 2020–21. Steel, wool, bandanas, ceramic, leather, and embroidery thread. © Cannupa Hanska Luger and Marie Watt. Photography © Denver Art Museum.