Artist Talk: Raven Halfmoon in conversation with Cecilia Alemani (Indoor Event)

Watch the in-depth conversation between artist Raven Halfmoon and Cecilia Alemani, Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, as they discussed Halfmoon’s commission, West Side Warrior, located on the High Line at Little West 12th Street.

Raven Halfmoon’s practice ranges from torso-scaled to colossal-sized stoneware, bronze, and stone sculptures that honor her Caddo heritage. Born and raised in Oklahoma, she was first introduced to traditional Caddo pottery techniques by a Caddo elder. The Caddo Nation is a Tribal Nation whose ancestral homelands encompass what is now large parts of Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Caddos are known for their engraved, incised, and distinctly styled pottery, and hand-built various vessels using a coil method. Halfmoon uses this knowledge to inform her contemporary practice, combining these traditional techniques with references to current pop culture. With inspiration that ranges from ancient earthwork construction and Indigenous pottery to the monumental sculptures on Easter Island, Halfmoon examines the intersection of tradition, history, gender, and personal experience. She fuses Caddo imagery, such as stars or symbols representing the Red River, with contemporary gestures—tagging and glazing her work like a graffiti artist. Halfmoon’s expressive surfaces, marked with her deep finger impressions, assert her presence for all those who see the work, countering a history of silencing Indigenous voices.

For the High Line, Halfmoon presents West Side Warrior, a towering bust of a Native female horse rider. Historically, busts have been commissioned to commemorate aristocrats, rulers, or military leaders. Halfmoon subverts these traditions, depicting an unidentified Indigenous woman with facial tattoos wearing a cowboy hat. While the work is a nod to the artist’s heritage and connection to the American West, it also references the High Line’s history.

In the mid-19th century, the railway company employed men on horseback, called the West Side Cowboys, in an effort to reduce rates of pedestrian injury and death from street-level freight trains. Eventually, the cowboys were phased out, and the freight line was elevated off the street—creating what we now call the High Line.