Gerald Clarke

Gerald Clarke (born February 24, 1967) is a sculptor, installation, and conceptual artist from the Cahuilla Band of Mission Indians. His work often reflects on and questions current issues in Native America and the United States, as well as his personal life. He was the Teresa and Byron Pollitt Endowed Term Professor for Interdisciplinary Research and Learning at the University of California, Riverside.

Background Early life

Clarke was born in Hemet, California in 1967, to Carol and Gerald Clarke Sr.

Higher education

Clarke worked as a welder, and married Stacy Brown. In 1991 he graduated University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts in painting and sculpture and a Master of Arts in 1994 from Stephen F. Austin State University.

Current life

Clarke creates his own work, teaches art at Idyllwild Arts Academy, and runs a storage business with wife Stacy.

Traditional influences

A traditional art form of the Cahuilla people, basketry is not only a community, but a family tradition for Clarke. While his artworks do not utilize the same materials as seen in traditional basket making, he sees his creation process as similar to theirs: "Cahuilla basket makers go out and gather materials, and they put them together to produce something that is both functional and aesthetic. I kind of do my work the same way. I go out and I gather these things. I combine them."

Major works and themes

Clarke's work is often politically minded, reflecting on current and past issues taking place in Indian Country, California, the United States as a whole, and within his personal life.

Contemporary Native America

In 1996 Clarke created Artifacts, a collection of four shovels with the blades down, meant to be leaned against a wall. The top handles are wrapped in colored ribbons: black, green, red and yellow, colors indicative of the American Indian community. Writing, in black marker, travels around the handle, until the top of the blade. The four shovels represent his father and one for his three aunts, who are represented on their own shovel by a photograph affixed before the blade. A cattle brand is welded into each shovel blade, like those found on Clarke's family ranch. His goal with Artifacts is to show how one can dig up the past to reveal American Indians in the world today.

Road signs

In 2001 Clarke started to create road signs to be displayed along roads on the Cahuilla reservation and near his family's ranch entrance. These road signs show words in the Cahuilla language:

Nesun e' elquish - I am sad Nextaxmuqa - I am singing Kimul Hakushwe - The door is open Ivawen - Be strong

The signs, welcomed by the community, eventually disappeared off the side of the road, plucked off by vandals or road side collectors. Clarke sought to remind his own tribal members that they are valuable to this world.

When Clarke was rewarded an Eiteljorg Fellowship, from the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, in 2007 he created three signs relevant to the Miami people, connecting with the Miami Nation of Indians in Indiana. Working with Miami artist and historian Scott Shoemaker the three pieces were installed on the museum grounds where they reside to this day:

Myaamionki - Place of the Miami Oonseentia - Yellow poplar tree Seekaahkwiaanki - We held on to the tree limbs