as small as a world and as large as alone

7:12pm July 11, 2013

artistsofcolour:

James Luna, Take a Picture with a Real Indian, performance, 2001.

In Take A Picture With A Real Indian the artist dressed in three different “costumes” and beckoned his audience to take a photo with him as a way to comment on the exploitation of Native culture in American corporate society.  Luna wore a loincloth, subsequently added a bone breast plate and a feather in his hair, and, lastly, put on regular street clothes.  The fact that the audience does not line up for photographs when he is wearing the last “costume” proves Luna’s point that Native people have been turned into commodities by the entertainment industry.

Read more at: Institute of American Indian Arts

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