Jason Lujan

I believe that artists have the responsibility to be cultural producers and agents of social change; my work is an effort to invest contemporary Native American culture with an international sense of place. Using common materials and products that reference global commodities and exchange, for example, product branding on cardboard packaging, the goal is to evoke dialectic tension between competing visualities and concepts, yet offer multiple readings on cultural assumptions. I have a preference for creating work that is hybridised, creating images reflective of the layering of transcultural experiences.

Painted natural canvas loosely wrapped around a tree trunk. The pattern on the fabric is based on my own Native North American heritage, and is a stand-in for language; it is a black repeating motif against a natural, unbleached cloth. The idea is to indicate how language embodies a specific worldview, and how it can shape our concept of environment. This work is part of the Cementa Initiative, ‘Correspondence of Imaginary Places’