In the Studio with Terran Last Gun
“My work is focused on color and form, and how they interact with one another,” says Piikani(Blackfeet) citizen and visual artist Terran Last Gun. The Piikani of Montana are one of four nations that make up the Blackfoot Confederacy and are collectively referred to as the Niitsitapi (Real People). Last Gun’s work is deeply influenced by his cultural heritage, particularly Blackfoot painted lodges, hides, war shirts, and archaeology throughout Montana and Alberta. His work explores the relationships between color, shape, land, cosmos, cultural narratives, and personal experiences, which he describes as the “building blocks of my art practice.” He works with a range of media including printmaking, painting, photography, and ledger drawing.
His upcoming show at Hecho a Mano will feature a new body of ledger drawings, a medium that has been the focus of his work for the past several years. Its history dates back to at least the 1860s, when it was being developed by incarcerated Great Plains people who created narrative works of art using whatever materials they could access: “usually sheets of paper that were torn out of ledger books and given to these prisoners,” Last Gun explains, as well as crayons, colored pencils, and sometimes watercolors.
“Ledger art is very unique to Indigenous people,” Last Gun says, interpreting the art form as an expression of resourcefulness in documenting experience. Last Gun’s own ledger art is more geometric than representational, yet still functions as a kind of eloquent record. “I am often pondering how we relate to color and form, both individually and collectively as human beings,” he says.
