Sovereign

Luger’s commissioned project Sovereign (2024), which expands on his ongoing Future Ancestral Technologies series, is an installation that celebrates Indigenous technologies embedded in inter-relational practices. Set in an indeterminate present, three interdimensional travelers appear as large scale sculptures traversing the space-time continuum. Wearing Sovereignty suits to maintain their breath in hostile territories, these navigators are accompanied by their more than human familiar, Red Rover, a four legged robotic droid designed for carrying supplies across cosmic terrain. A reflective sculptural teepee stretches across the walls of the Hammer Lobby, while a three-channel projection of Los Angeles glitches between time jumps. A 16 channel sound installation created from theramins and droning synths evokes 1950’s science fiction films which often extended problematic tropes of settler colonialism into the “new frontier” of space exploration. Playing within the frameworks of pop culture and speculative fiction, this installation questions the limitations of our collective imagination. Sovereign recognizes that time flows in multiple directions, and that culture is the conduit through which we can dream unimaginable dreams far into the future and communicate with relatives long since past.