The Sacred Nothing

About

‍The Sacred Nothing resituates a body of images taken while Lujan was an artist-in-residence with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in 2005. The photographs depict cultural objects “behind the scenes” of the NMAI Cultural Resource Center, in storage or undergoing conservation and documentation. The project shows these objects removed from their original context and how their meanings shift when they appear as specimens or patients awaiting surgery. The encased architecture of the Vitrines advances the displacement of disused objects further.