Cannupa Hanska Luger
Born:
Standing Rock Indian Reservation, North Dakota
Lives in:
Santa Fe, Glorieta, USA
Location
- White Bay Power Station
Cannupa Hanska Luger is a multidisciplinary artist creating monumental installations, sculpture, and performance to activate speculative fiction and communicate urgent stories of 21st century Indigeneity. Born on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, USA, Luger is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold and is Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota. Luger’s bold visual storytelling presents new ways of seeing our collective humanity while foregrounding an Indigenous worldview.
Cannupa Hanska Luger, Volume (III – White Bay Power Station, Australia), 2026. Ceramic work and sound composition newly commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain. Originated with VOLUME (I—EMPAC Concert Hall, New York), commissioned by Vic Brooks and Nida Ghouse for Shifting Center (2023) at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York © Cannupa Hanska Luger. Installation view, 25th Biennale of Sydney, Rememory, 2026, White Bay Power Station. Photograph: Document Photography
Cannupa Hanska Luger
Born 1979, USA
Lives and works in Santa Fe, USA Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota
VOLUME (III—White Bay Power Station, Australia) 2026
ceramic, site-specific sound installation
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain
This sonic ensemble originated with VOLUME (I—EMPAC Concert Hall, New York), commissioned by Vic Brooks and Nida Ghouse for Shifting Center (2023) at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC),
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Evolving from that initial commission, the ceramic work and sound composition presented here is newly commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney
Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
The globular whistle is one of the earliest forms of ceramic instrument, reflecting ancestral creativity and the transformation of clay into sound. In this installation, stoneware whistles are shaped into animals once native to Australia, many now extinct due to human impact.
Each whistle acts as a memento mori, giving breath and life to forms that might otherwise be considered “dead.” The whistles are brought to life by a programmed airflow, filling the installation with rhythm and sound, tracing a continuum of time that weaves ancestral knowledge with contemporary practice. Through clay and sound, the work invites reflection on interconnectedness, wisdom, and the enduring presence of life.
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