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“These works reflect my ongoing fascination with the creation of the Gullah language and culture of the
Sea Islands of Charleston, South Carolina. They can be viewed as mnemonic devices for a process that can only be re-remembered through imagination. Layers of unreadable text are a visual representation of the overlapping of
language, sign, symbol, etc. to create new methods of communication. Through research, I've also discovered that African Muslims, such as Omar Ibn Said, were also included in this process. So I've incorporated Arabic looking
text as well to represent their presence. These works also attempt to bridge an ocean of loss of collective memory through metaphor and dreaming”.
-ARTIST STATEMENT
About His Rice and Indigo Series
In his current series of work, the artist searches for an understanding
of a cultural past and enduring cultural legacy involving the people, the land, and the fascinating political history of the South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands. He follows in the tradition of Eldzier Cortor, and other
African American artists who traveled to the Sea Islands for creative inspiration, and he shares the fascination of anthropologists and folklorists who have studied the unique cultural heritage of the Gullah-Geechee people who
call the Sea Islands home.
McCloud’s point of departure is the particular form of agrarian economy that developed in the low country of South Carolina. Rice, which was introduced around 1680, and later indigo, the crop
from which indigo dye is made, were imported from West Africa and flourished in the marshy tidewater area, fueling the impressive economic rise of the low country economy and making its inhabitants among the wealthiest in North
America. The extraordinary performance of the low country economy, however, was inextricably bound to African slavery.
McCloud carefully avoids a realist tendency to document the people and culture, though he is quite
capable of working in a narrative vernacular. His studies shine a spotlight on how elements survive, thrive and influence other cultures in the new world. He does this through the visual metaphors of rice, indigo and cotton and
deftly guides his progression from the contemplation of the agrarian roots to other aspects of African survivals or African retention, which include language patterns and even the metalwork in the graveyard decoration.
McCloud’s “gate” pieces inspired by the legendary Charleston, blacksmith Philip Simmons whose decorative ironwork decorate many prominent Charleston homes, churches and public places.
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