UMass Boston

A new public artwork now greets visitors outside University Hall at UMass Boston: Transmutation by the highly acclaimed artist Cannupa Hanska Luger.

The sculpture, a feature piece of the inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial, is both a monumental installation and a collaborative act of remembrance and resilience formed by hundreds of student and community hands.

Presented in partnership with UMass Boston Arts on the Point and the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program, Transmutation is a living memorial that calls upon the collective to reflect on loss, celebrate resilience, and begin the journey of healing. 

A towering pair of sculptural portals form the foundation for Transmutation, each crowned with a buffalo skull cast in resin, based on clay originals sculpted by Luger himself. Between them stretches a suspended net adorned with thousands of black and white ribbons, inscribed with handwritten reflections and messages of hope.

Photo by Javier Rivas

The visual impact is immediate, but the meaning runs deeper. Over the course of six workshops in spring 2025, more than 250 students, faculty, and community members participated in the piece’s creation. Participants were invited to reflect on the prompt “Call back the buffalo,” writing messages on ribbons that were then tied to the sculpture’s mesh fabric.

Luger’s work addresses the near-eradication of America’s buffalo population during the U.S. government’s “War of Attrition” against Plains tribes and also invokes the buffalo as ancestral beings, gathering symbols, and metaphors for Indigenous survival and community restoration.

“It’s one thing for students to be reading theory and history, and it’s another thing for those ideas to be put into a physical form to see it, to hold it, to interact with it,” said Sam Toabe, director of Arts on the Point and gallery director at UMass Boston’s University Hall Gallery. “You don’t want an artist just dropping off an artwork that doesn’t have anything to do with the context that they’re placing it in. Lugar’s collective approach really allows people to have agency in how it’s created, how it’s talked about.”

From anthropology and Native American studies students to campus passersby and attendees at UMass Boston’s 2nd annual powwow, participants took ownership of the piece, inscribing it with stories, memories, and hopes for the future.

Photo by Annielly Camargo

“During the powwow, we got nearly the last third of the ribbons completed,” said Toabe. “People in our workshops and open events were helping both cut, write on, and tie the ribbons. So it really has been a community project.”

That experiential element is at the heart of Luger’s artistic practice. Known for large-scale works that blend speculative fiction, land-based rituals, and collaborative performance, the New Mexico-based artist creates what he calls “living memorials.” In Transmutation, the act of tying a ribbon becomes a ritual of solidarity, binding people together across time, place, and identity.

The project required a lot of behind-the-scenes coordination to bring it to life. Tess Lukey, the curator at the Triennial, played a key role in leading the workshops, and Maria K John, assistant professor in the History Department, helped coordinate students’ participation and worked closely with campus partners to make the project possible.

Photo by Annielly Camargo

The structure anchors a broader vision for site-specific public art across Boston. The Triennial, themed The Exchange, brings together artists, curators, and community partners to create work around key issues including indigeneity, climate, health, and shared humanity. UMass Boston was selected as one of 20 sites citywide.

For UMass Boston, the project also reflects a long-standing institutional commitment to public art. Arts on the Point, founded in 1997, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2027. Partnering with the Triennial for this first citywide edition affirms the university’s place in Boston’s broader cultural and artistic landscape.

“Boston is a public art city,” said Toabe. “We have a long history of public monuments and sculptures, and we’re rethinking ways in which people engage with public spaces.” 

Transmutation is on view outside University Hall through October 31, 2025. For more information contact UHGallery@umb.edu.