Artwork copyright James Luna. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2022.

Artwork copyright James Luna. Photo courtesy of Western Washington University, 2025.

High Tech Peace Pipe [photograph], 2001

James Luna
American Payómkawichum (Luiseño) (born 1950, died 2018)

Location: Western Washington University, Bellingham

About the Artwork

High Tech Peace Pipe [photograph] is a humorous conceptual artwork created by artist James Luna (Luiseño). He created the "peace pipe" object to use during a performance at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The artist noted, "I came up with a futuristic story that deals with we Indians as 'survivors' and how we have been able to survive by making due with what we have been given or in some case with what we have left to us. The metal pipe represented a by-product of having to make do with having diminished our supply of pipestone." Luna uses anything he can to get his point across. This peace pipe is made of plumbing parts, beading, and a vintage 1980s red telephone. This photograph is documentation of the performance, the object, and the artist. It features the artist in stereotypical and inauthentic Indian clothing and jewelry, with the peace pipe. Luna noted, "I am not a healer, but can be considered a clown."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Western Washington University.

About the Artist

James Luna (Luiseño, 1950-2018) was a performance artist, photographer, and multimedia installation artist. His art explores and challenges stereotypes of Native American peoples, especially in our modern world. Humor and irony play important, healing roles in Luna's work.

Luna lived on the La Jolla Indian Reservation in Southern California. He was of Luiseño, Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican heritage. Luna earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of California at Irvine in 1976 and a Master of Science degree in counseling at San Diego State University in 1983. He taught art at the University of California, San Diego, and spent 25 years as a full-time academic counselor at Palomar College in San Marcos, California. In 2011, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico.