| Abstract | The Laguna Pueblo has evolved as an enduring symbol of Pueblo cultural identity, an identity in which history, storytelling, religion, and art production remain central and inseparable. During the past three centuries, the community influenced and was influenced by currents of outside peoples and agendas. From colonial Spanish missionary expeditions to the Santa Fe railway operation, to the influx of American tourists traversing the iconic Route 66—throughout its lifetime, the Laguna Pueblo has been a cultural attraction to outsiders. Today, Laguna artwork has traveled into the collections of national museums and into the homes and personal collections of American citizens, while the artwork of its church and historic mission site, San José de Laguna remains a popular tourist attraction as well as a source of memory and spiritual identity. By retelling the story of the Laguna Pueblo through its artwork and exploring its history from a postcolonial perspective, this project considers Laguna artmaking as an act of agency and survivance. I argue that the spirituality of the Laguna people is manifest in their art, even within the art and architecture of the very mission intended to convert them. How can art history, a discipline traditionally dependent upon the methodologies of western theorists, ethically and responsibly credit the stories of identity and spirituality buried beneath centuries of colonial trauma, misappropriation, and commercialization? Critiquing founding art historian Aby Warburg, I will consider the strength and resilience of Laguna cultural identity through its art production, even as that identity is distorted and put on display. Interviewing contemporary Laguna artists and following the stories and journeys of objects and artists throughout Laguna’s history from the seventeenth century through the present day, I will demonstrate how art making at Laguna has become a cultural and spiritual practice of both celebration and resistance, carefully subverting stereotypes while shielding and reinforcing cultural identity. I will argue that the life stories of Laguna artworks may reveal new ways in which cultural identity can expand, diminish, persevere, and transform. |
