In The Dripping Earth, Kanupa Hanskar Ruger brings the past into a speculative future—a huge
After entering Cannupa Hanska Luger’s new exhibition, dripping earth At the Joslyn Art Museum, visitors find themselves, in a sense, underwater. A frame of a bull ship sailing overhead references the historic boats used by some of the Plains tribes and guides us through the Joslyn’s location in Omaha along the Missouri River, the museum’s art collection, and Luger’s Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota ancestry.
Luger is known for her interdisciplinary explorations of Northern Plains ancestry through clay, sculpture, performance, textiles, video, and more. for The dripping earth, The artist’s source of inspiration is closely linked to Jocelyn’s collection and his own observations of art in his youth: the works of the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809-1893).
From 1832 to 1834, Bodmer accompanied the German naturalist Prince Wider Maximilian on his expedition to North America. Bodmer served as official documentarian, visually detailing the landscapes and people they encountered in numerous paintings and watercolors, many of which were later reproduced in Europe as lithographs. His portraits, which often emphasize ritual, are valuable records of Native American tribal identity during this period.
Fascinated by the nature of artifacts—how, for example, Bodmer’s work becomes an artifact within an artifact in the context of prints and reproductions—Ruge considers how narratives are conveyed and received. When Bodmer’s drawings were converted into lithographs in the 19th century, the printmakers took liberties with “correcting” what they considered errors or incompleteness, changing anatomical anomalies or missing details. But in some cases, these corrections are not actually a reflection of the reality revealed by the original watercolor.
Ruger is interested in how, over time, printed content becomes fixed, sometimes misunderstood, and inflexible. On the other hand, oral traditions like those of the Northern Plains tribes were always evolving. for The dripping earth, The artist focuses on this fluidity within the broader context of how American history is told.
“As a Native person growing up in North America, you go to school, you learn the history of this country, and you have a contrary story,” the artist said in his opening speech. Dripping earth. his ongoing series Future ancestral technology is a way of dismantling time—bringing the past and the future together in a way that addresses how Native American material and visual culture is represented in museums—as something ancient, primitive, and dark, when in fact it has always existed and is always evolving.
For this exhibition, Ruge expanded the scale and produced one of his largest works to date. A monumental statue made of steel and black clay looms over a number of ceramic vessels, carved wood objects and multimedia installations. A socially engaged piece composed of steel poles and handmade clay beads is also reminiscent of a giant three-dimensional abacus in the shape of a buffalo, illustrating the return of wild buffalo to the plains. Some of the workshops held at the museum invite visitors to make their own clay beads, which are then added to the sculptures to complete the animal’s shape over time.
Central to dripping earth Many of the dancers wore crocheted fabrics, padded gloves and headdresses reminiscent of bison. These include Luger’s Midgar Addi series, whose title is derived from the word “buffalo” in Hidatsa. A new set of limited edition prints combines these colorful figures (complete with Benday dots that pay homage to the prints themselves) with the landscapes Bodmer painted in the Missouri River region.
Interestingly, while Bodmer also painted landscapes, the backgrounds of his portraits were usually blank. Ruger delves into how most 19th-century landscape paintings of so-called “virgin lands” simply ignored the presence of the indigenous people who already lived there. “Oh, but we were there!” Luger said. Bodmer’s paintings are almost like landscapes inverted, emphasizing only the figures. for a new series Midgar Addi In the print, Ruge incorporated Bodmer’s landscape into the background.
Remarkably, many of the landscapes documented by the Swiss artist are now submerged in the Missouri River as large dams were built. But Luger sees this as part of a larger story in which these land forms created by the river do not “disappear” but are recaptured by the river. This makes us think again about how to view Ruger’s exhibition as if traveling through a timeless, watery realm of representations of the past, present, and future—a speculative future filled with the past.
Luger’s Midgar Addi The dancers made multiple appearances in 2025, including a large-scale installation for Times Square’s nightly Midnight Hour public art project. The video work takes over more than 90 giant LED screens at Manhattan intersections throughout April, playing for three minutes starting at 11:57 p.m.
A character named “Midéegaadi – Fire” also debuted in an unsanctioned digital group show last month. coding At the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s United States Pavilion, figures danced on Thomas Cole’s 1836-37 painting “Catskill Mountain View – Early Autumn” in an augmented reality show.
dripping earth The event will run in Omaha until March 8, 2026. and coding New York City ends on December 21st. See more information on the artist’s website and Instagram.
