Raven Halfmoon Builds Ceramic Monuments to Femininity

Raven Halfmoon creates ceramic monuments. Her large-scale stoneware sculptures are figurative, glazed, and gendered—and they seem to defy what sculpture can do. In scale, some are larger-than-life; others are small and elevated to eye level. The surfaces are rough and tactile, coated in bold paints and tagged with symbols. Each one’s presence feels totemic. As a group, they ask what it means to take up public space and how people, processes, and histories are articulated in those very spaces.

In her recent solo exhibition at Salon 94, “Neesh + Soku (Moon + Sun)” (September 18 – November 2, 2024), Halfmoon fused her ancestral relationship to ceramics with signs of the times. She continued her practice of coiling—a process traditional to the Caddo Nation—while also incorporating bronze and marble. Her new sculptures wear cowboy hats, smoke Marlboros, and tell you to fuck off. Through the sculptures’ posture, embodied individuality, and amply applied, bright-red lipstick, Halfmoon thinks about her lived experience of femininity and the images that go with it. Whitewall caught up with Halfmoon to learn more about how her past, present, and future selves informed her new work. As the title suggests, the exhibition explores natural dualities, thinking about how light cannot exist without dark (and vice versa). Yet the actual sculptures feel deeply personal, manifesting the different facets of Halfmoon’s own self-expression. Among their many resonances, these sculptures are about how we make ourselves up (with makeup; with stories) to encounter the world.

WHITEWALL: To start, could you talk about how you decided to work in stoneware and more specifically, by coiling?

RAVEN HALFMOON: Stoneware and coiling are both closely related to how traditional Caddos make. So, I’ve always been drawn to stoneware because it’s a clay body that can go outside. It doesn’t have to be fired the way that porcelain does. Porcelain, when you work with it, is so smooth. It’s almost like cream cheese, which is great, but I work really large. So I need a clay body that’s gritty, can withstand the elements, can go outside. I build really thick, even the coils themselves are almost an inch thick. The coil-building process is just how I have learned to build large with all of these pieces. And again, even when I was making smaller pieces, I still used the coiled method, because that’s how Caddos have traditionally built.

Stoneware comes in a full range of colors, but I always pick a color that is traditional to Caddo pottery, which is going to be a lot of dark clay bodies, dark chocolates. I do use some creams. But even the clay body that I’ve made myself, it’s my own recipe, has a lot of flecks in it, all the grog, so when it’s fired, it’s super strong. It looks just like my ancestors’ clay.

WW: Were you able to learn the technique from someone or did you do your own research to revive the practice?

RH: I was able to learn from a Caddo elder. She was the first one to revitalize traditional Caddo pottery. And when I was young, me and my mom went and worked with her in her home, where she pulled clay naturally from riverbeds and fired traditionally, which is done by pit firing. And then when I was in school at the University of Arkansas—that’s where my tribe is originally from, the Arkansas, Oklahoma area—I was able to hold these artifacts at the archeological center that were made thousands of years ago. And you can see how they were built. And so, I think through having a hands-on experience with an elder and then seeing those artifacts that my ancestors have made, it clicked naturally.

WW: I know you’ve spoken before about the influence of Van Gogh and the way you leave references to your own hand in your work. I was thinking about that kind of 19th-century practice that draws attention to the artwork’s materiality. I wondered what you think about the materiality of your own work? And what does it feel like to see it in different gallery spaces?

RH: With my own work, my sculptures are meant to feel like they are real people. I think that’s why I work in the round. I’m also a painter, and I work in other elements as well. What’s so powerful to me is to see something in the round, especially when making figures, because it’s a one-to-one basis. We can really put ourselves in that situation or relate to sculpture, especially being in the human form. For this purpose, I love the use of clay as a material. The clay captures every fingerprint and moment like Van Gogh’s paintings reflect a moment in time. I want my sculptures to feel ancient and contemporary. They’re built using ancient materials but telling a contemporary story. With my artwork, viewers are meant to see the material and process to make the work. 

I had a lot of shows that were in white wall galleries because that’s what I grew up seeing, and that’s how I kind of saw the work. But now, like this show I have at Salon 94, I’m using different things. The floors and pedestals are different. It’s all about incorporating materials that are important within my practice. It gives a definition to the work. So, it’s not just like this piece floating in space alone, and I’m really starting to enjoy that.

“My sculptures are meant to feel like they are real people,” —Raven Halfmoon

Raven Halfmoon at Salon 94 in New York

WW: When I was at the gallery, I was amazed by the presence each of those works has because some of them are relatively small in scale, but I still felt like I was encountering someone. They each seem to have their own individuality.

RH: Even for the smaller pieces, that’s how I want them to feel: powerful. They are all individuals and carry with them history and presence. Each one is a lived memory, experience, or story that comes to life.

WW: I know you’ve talked a lot about the matriarchs in your life, like your mother and your grandmother, and how the Caddo people are matriarchal. What did it feel like to grow up in a matriarchy?

RH:  I didn’t realize it was matriarchy, there were definitely men and uncles and grandfathers too. But as an artist, I think something about the strength of the women in my family resonated with me. Women are nurturers but also powerful in their abilities to unite families, nurture children,n and protect us.

I really have taken that on, and I think clay has helped me manifest that. Because I’m just a single person. I’m this woman, but I build these like gigantic, monolithic pieces. I don’t do it all alone; there’s tons of help from the community and people around me. But my art even helps me express that feeling of how I’ve grown up, and that power around matriarchy. I’ve always wanted to make larger and larger and larger. You know, even within the show, it goes from ceramic to stone to bronze. You take these steps as you walk through the show.

WW: In the show, I felt very protected by everything. When I am in matriarchal spaces, I feel very safe in a way that I don’t normally feel inhabiting the world. It’s nice to have that resonate through the work.

RH: The opening is when I finally saw them all in person. So, even for me, I feel the same way being in those spaces. And it was my first time to experience all the ceramic work together with the stonework and the bronze. I feel the same way being in those spaces. And, you know, I love to hear that, because I try to make pieces that are spiritual and serene, and feel safe and feel powerful, and make you feel kind of small next to them, but in every great way possible. They’re supposed to feel almost ceremonial.

Raven Halfmoon and the Caddo Origin Story

WW: I wondered if you could also tell me about the concept behind this show at Salon 94?

RH: This show is titled “Neesh + Soku,” which means moon and sun. We think of these binaries when we think of sun, moon, night, day, good and bad, black and white. Even my name is Halfmoon. I’ve realized that light can’t exist without dark, and dark can’t exist without light. We need both things in our life. That’s what we are as humans. In the exhibition, you’ll see a lot of cross symbols, which are symbols of balance. Different tribes use those symbols. It’s north, south, east, west, and it’s the lower world, middle world, and upper world. So, it’s this idea of harmony. Even the bronze and the stone, you’ll see half of them are black, half of them are white. And a lot of those ceramic pieces have that same color palette. Also, in the Caddo origin story, we came from under the ground, and then we came out into the light.

“In the Caddo origin story, we came from under the ground, and then we came out into the light,” —Raven Halfmoon

WW: This show incorporates more pop culture imagery than you have in other series. The figures wear lipstick, they have cigarettes, and they wear hats. They all feel very composed. I was thinking about the concept of being “made up,” like how one maybe prepares to enter the world. And I wondered if that was something you were thinking about with these?

RH: Totally. Yes. A lot of my pieces talk about past, present, future. You’ll see multiple heads, multiple eyes. I feel like I carry a lot of others with me. It’s more than just my point of view. I really try to be genuine and true to what I have personally lived through.

I adopted two horses this year. I ride horses, and they [the sculptures] have cowboy hats. In Oklahoma, we have more federally recognized tribes than any other state. And then that being tied into Oklahoma being a red state, it’s a balance. We have so much history, and most of the time, history is not great. I really try to have that reflection, those cultural references in my work, while at the same time being contemporary. It’s like a new idea of what the 21st century Native American woman looks like. Yeah, she’s wearing the cowboy hat, she’s smoking Marlboro cigarettes. But are we still in Oklahoma? Yeah, she’s she still rides horses, and she’s still doing all her things, but then she’s saying, “Fuck the patriarchy.”

WW: In relation to your own style, what do you think about when you’re getting dressed in the morning?

RH: When I’m getting ready, I love to be true to me. I don’t leave my house without putting on lipstick and wearing glasses. Like just walking the dog so they can take a shit. It’s what makes me comfortable. I do like to call attention to items that speak to me. Like even this shirt, it’s black and white, and it has a Camaro on it. I drive a Camaro. So just wearing things that are true to me. So right now, it happens to be a lot of black and a lot of white and sometimes red. You’ll see that within the work.

WW: How did you land on the lipstick and glasses? What was the process of getting there?

RH: Lipstick, I’ve been doing it forever. Since college, I’ve been wearing red lipstick every day. Every once in a while, I’ll change it up, but the lipstick is just me. I feel naked without it. It’s like my second skin. But the glasses, I think it’s a rockstar vibe haha!

Fashion and style have always been a big part of my life. So it’s all relative, but it’s something that I care about. It’s how we express ourselves. That’s a tie-in to why I love to make art and why I have tattoos.

WW: How does it feel having these sculptures who are these multifaceted reflections of you? Does it feel like you’re encountering versions of your current self or versions of your past selves?

RH: I feel like it’s both. It’s versions of me and other women. It’s past and present. It’s also the future. The bronze, The Guardians, that’s how I think of myself. It’s things that I’ve been through. The piece where she’s flipping off and smoking a cigarette it’s called “Buck Off” because I literally got bucked off my horse.

WW: I also wanted to ask about the poses of the figures. Some of them felt like La Grande Odalisque or like a Sphinx, and I wondered what the process of thinking through that was like?

RH: A lot of the pieces are totemic. They’re large and they take up space vertically. For me, it was a way of making powerful work that didn’t have to be tall. It was a way to process how these women and figures can still be almighty if they were laying down. Don’t fuck with us.

Because that’s how I feel. For example, this past year, I’ve been trying to take a step back and do things that make me happy personally, such as riding horses, walking, and practicing meditation. So, with these things, how can I still hold power? These women are laying down and relaxing. But that doesn’t mean we’re not productive. Before I made those pieces, I went to the Field Museum in Chicago, where there are sarcophagi and sphinxes. I went to that museum, was there for hours, and then made that work within two weeks after that. So, that has a lot of influence as well. I wanted them to feel like lions when you go in and then when you go out.