Audio Stop 734

GERALD CLARKE, JR.: 

My name is Gerald Clarke Jr., and I’m an enrolled citizen of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, and I live here on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation, which is located in the mountains here in Southern California.

NARRATOR: 

Clarke runs his family’s cattle ranch – and this work informs his art.

GC: 

Oftentimes you’ll hear people say, “I live in two worlds.”  Right?  Maybe my life on the reservation and then my life as an artist or as a college professor.  But you know, I bring all of that into the studio with me.

NARRATOR: 

The artwork you see here is part of Clarke’s “branded” series. He forges branding irons in the shapes of words and symbols, and then applies the heated irons to wet watercolor paper. This piece is called Native American Art.

GC: 

I think it’s very straightforward.  It’s kind of in your face – “Native American Art.”  But at the same time, I want people to feel the violence, the violence of contemporary times but also the violence of our history. And I love the way that the irons have burned the image into the paper.

Since the first European explorers would step foot on these lands, they would plant their flag, which is a way of branding.  It’s a way of showing ownership, and most of the time the Native people had no say in what could be claimed. 

And so this is me kind of turning that brand on itself and back onto the dominant society.

NARRATOR: 

By creating works that defy stereotypical conceptions of Native art, Clarke is also reminding the dominant society that it’s not up to them to define what “Native American Art” is. 

GC: 

You know, it’s not as simple as a certain material or a certain color or a certain design.  It’s a native person who’s expressing, you know, their views to the rest of the world.  Right?

My hope is that you see my work, and it challenges maybe some preconceived ideas of what you might think Native American art is or can be.