Savage Noble
Cannupa Hanska Luger, 2017
Ceramic, steel, fiber
6' H x 8' W x 8' D

Savage Noble is the embodiment of colonial power. The collateral effect of dominion imposed on the natural order of cooperation manifest as monster. This beast is representative of the man-faced manticore, a mythical creature whose bite and scratch are poisonous, and which devours all in its path. We are in a modern era of monsters and Savage Noble reminds us of the carnage from our continued path of consumption. This beast marks our displacement as human beings from the land, from the natural cycles of the planet and reminds us of our inability to acknowledge and coexist with the natural world. The historical term ‘Noble Savage’ distorted the Indigenous populations of the Americas into ‘other’ through a colonized lens, separating all things that were identifiably different and marking them for consumption; Savage Noble in this same respect of term, commends colonial and capitalist power structuring itself as monster. By creating the narrative focus from an Indigenous perspective, we see this beast for what it is, and so now we may slay it.