1
00:00:08,134 --> 00:00:10,400
MARK BRADFORD: You know 
what? Let’s just put it up.

2
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:11,400
SPEAKER: Then we adjust it later.

3
00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:15,357
BRADFORD: Yeah, and if it’s a 
problem, all your fault. (LAUGHS)

4
00:00:15,862 --> 00:00:18,836
Never on me. (LAUGHS)

5
00:00:19,249 --> 00:00:21,840
SPEAKER: How do you do this 
because these were advertisements?

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,651
BRADFORD: Yeah, on the fences.

7
00:00:28,712 --> 00:00:31,914
BRADFORD: I only take the advertisements 
that have to do businesses.

8
00:00:33,360 --> 00:00:37,400
After the riot, so many buildings were burnt 
down that they put this fencing around it

9
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:40,110
and so everybody starts to use 
the fencing for these signs.

10
00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:45,781
But you see the same things 
all the time in the ghetto.

11
00:00:45,988 --> 00:00:50,280
Cash. For your houses. It’s 
like cash, we buy your houses.

12
00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:51,129
I like this one.

13
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:53,840
Immigration papers in 30 days.

14
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:55,000
How is this possible?

15
00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:59,201
Locks for hair. Black people and hair.

16
00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:04,960
I take twine, you know, string, 
glue, all down around it

17
00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:08,600
and then I take the billboard paper 
and I turn it on the back side,

18
00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:10,400
not the good side, but the back side.

19
00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:15,280
I lay it on and let it dry and 
it like...and then I sand it.

20
00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:20,640
And some, I don’t, you 
can’t...the language is all gone,

21
00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,474
a little bit gone, sometimes it works better.

22
00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:28,000
Just...yeah, it’s just information in the city.

23
00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:29,160
You see it all the time.

24
00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:35,620
Found some...oh that’s nice.

25
00:01:35,620 --> 00:01:37,230
Uh-huh. A head.

26
00:01:38,286 --> 00:01:39,490
Put that over there.

27
00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,208
My practice is both collage 
and décollage at the same time.

28
00:01:44,320 --> 00:01:45,601
How would that look?

29
00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:52,133
Décollage. I take it away, and then 
collage I immediately add it right back.

30
00:01:54,519 --> 00:01:57,526
Sometimes you have to not put stuff on top.

31
00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:01,901
You got to retrieve something 
that’s under the bottom.

32
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:15,102
Good. Where’s that S? I saved 
it. Make sure the color is right.

33
00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,534
The line of my making or my art 
practice goes back to my childhood,

34
00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:26,840
but it’s not an art background, 
it’s a making background.

35
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,040
Me making the sign of the prices 
in my mother’s hair salon,

36
00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,040
I was in charge of that so I would do calligraphy.

37
00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:36,320
I learned how to...teach…

38
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,459
I taught myself calligraphy 
so I could make them very…

39
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:41,280
very fancy on the wall.

40
00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,513
So the hand...the hand was very early in my work.

41
00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:49,480
Signage, texts, but not perfect.

42
00:02:49,480 --> 00:02:55,160
It always got a little slimmer at the end 
because I wouldn’t measure it properly.

43
00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:57,200
But it worked out. She always 
said oh next time, it’s okay.

44
00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,106
When I raise the prices 
you’ll have another chance.

45
00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:03,325
Yeah, the make...I’ve always been a maker.

46
00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:10,992
In DADDY, DADDY, DADDY I was 
using materials that had memory.

47
00:03:11,566 --> 00:03:17,208
Memory from working in the hair salon, 
and I was using a lot of end papers.

48
00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:22,718
End papers are used when 
you are doing a permanent.

49
00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,182
I was also thinking a lot about music at the time.

50
00:03:29,641 --> 00:03:34,214
Music fragments, so DADDY, DADDY, 
DADDY kind of came out of that.

51
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,009
BLACK VENUS was one of the map-like paintings.

52
00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,912
I was really thinking of mapmaking 
and also the history of abstraction

53
00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,589
because in some ways I look at maps 
as sort of these abstract grids. 


54
00:03:53,090 --> 00:03:58,158
Baldwin Hills is where the sort of black, 
wealthy people of Los Angeles live.

55
00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:03,720
So I went driving around and came to an address,

56
00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,302
and I made up an imaginary 
story about who lived there.

57
00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:10,505
I actually Googled and Google Mapped this address.

58
00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,696
Then it just became more and 
more pushed into my imagination.

59
00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,280
I love soccer, and I decided 
that I wanted to craft

60
00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:27,372
my own sort of imaginary league of players.

61
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,600
GAME RECOGNIZES GAME,

62
00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:34,080
it was the largest piece 
actually to date that I had made,

63
00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:37,695
and I love the fragile, heroicness of it.

64
00:04:38,315 --> 00:04:40,291
And it was all constructed of paper.

65
00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,760
It was the first time that I put a 
painting and a sculpture in proximity,

66
00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:49,486
and I was trying to sort 
of activate a third thing.

67
00:04:53,800 --> 00:05:00,929
LOS MOSCOS was really me directly wanting 
to deal with issues of abstraction,

68
00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:05,440
modernism, abstract expressionism,

69
00:05:06,610 --> 00:05:08,900
it really kind of exploded for me.

70
00:05:11,080 --> 00:05:14,080
People say that they’re collages, I 
just think that they’re paintings,

71
00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,881
you know it’s on canvas, it’s a painting.

72
00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,230
At CalArts, what I did 
discover was bodies of ideas.

73
00:05:27,400 --> 00:05:29,640
I never knew what a postmodern condition was,

74
00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:30,320
I never heard of it.

75
00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,717
I never knew about Foucault 
and bell hooks and Cornel West.

76
00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:39,280
I never read those type of writings,

77
00:05:39,280 --> 00:05:43,280
but I lived with people who 
were living those type of lives

78
00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:45,200
so I remember coming home and telling my mother,

79
00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:46,640
oh you know you’re postmodern.

80
00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:47,932
She said oh, that’s sweet.

81
00:05:49,240 --> 00:05:53,880
So I...so I felt like I discovered friends 
in these books, these writers, I felt…

82
00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:55,680
I discovered these revolutionary people

83
00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:57,760
that were doing these really revolutionary things,

84
00:05:57,760 --> 00:05:59,280
so it was the writings that got me

85
00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:03,354
really, really, really, really enthusiastic.

86
00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:18,872
I wanted to create the feeling of being 
outdoors and indoors at the same time.

87
00:06:21,371 --> 00:06:27,120
As you walk in, one side is 
just covered with information.

88
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,920
On the opposite you have the 
reflection of these merchant posters

89
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,174
in the sort of mirror corridor.

90
00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:37,219
You have this sort of funhouse effect.

91
00:06:40,592 --> 00:06:45,120
This type of advertising which 
mainly you see on cyclone fencing,

92
00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:46,512
has a relationship to the body.

93
00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:52,840
It’s about the conditions that are going on at

94
00:06:52,840 --> 00:06:56,534
that particular moment at 
that particular location.

95
00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:06,800
You have “100% Roaches Gone” next 
to “Are you a licensed barber?”

96
00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:09,240
but if you put “My child says daddy” right next to

97
00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:13,100
“How to open a sober living 
facility” and “Lifetime Indian hair”

98
00:07:13,100 --> 00:07:15,826
it’s really a story that starts to unfold.

99
00:07:19,085 --> 00:07:21,032
As you move down this corridor,

100
00:07:21,606 --> 00:07:26,509
you come into a smaller room and you hear music.

101
00:07:26,509 --> 00:07:28,680
(MUSIC)

102
00:07:28,680 --> 00:07:31,057
You hear people celebrating.

103
00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:37,170
There are two videos on opposite walls.

104
00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:45,000
One video is of the Martin Luther 
King Day Parade in Los Angeles.

105
00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,394
And you see people who are 
remembering this political figure.

106
00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,440
The other is of a marketplace in Egypt.

107
00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:07,886
This actual night market is only for Muslims.

108
00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:16,971
They’re on opposing walls but 
they are facing each other.

109
00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:21,641
I go to the parade every year.

110
00:08:22,903 --> 00:08:27,453
Certain details, you start to see 
over and over and over and over again.

111
00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,000
Such as the policing.

112
00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:34,800
There’s as much policing 
of the parade as a parade.

113
00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:38,120
Every frame and it’s not that 
I tried to put police in it,

114
00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:39,576
they were just in every frame.

115
00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:49,643
To see so many black bodies in 
public space, it’s always political.

116
00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:53,119
Always a political condition.

117
00:09:07,400 --> 00:09:10,906
On the Cairo side, there was no police,

118
00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:13,031
there was no policing,

119
00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,372
these were just families enjoying themselves.

120
00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:25,849
But the Muslim body has become so politically 
charged that the space therefore is charged.

121
00:09:31,520 --> 00:09:36,004
They’re both politicized sites.

122
00:09:39,286 --> 00:09:43,490
But at the same time they’re 
about celebration as well.

123
00:10:02,680 --> 00:10:07,800
I noticed that my art practice 
is very detail, labor intensive

124
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:12,400
and I think that that’s a way of slowing 
myself down so that I can hear myself think,

125
00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,880
so that I can hear the voices 
a little bit more quiet,

126
00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:22,407
so I can hear maybe the decision that might 
come through that’s a little less large.

127
00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:31,051
That quieter voice has sometimes the more 
interesting idea, if I can get to it.

128
00:10:32,772 --> 00:10:34,360
I still don’t know how this is going to hang.

129
00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:35,400
I still don’t even know…

130
00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,680
to me, I like it with the tacks in it,

131
00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:40,862
but well, maybe bright colored tacks.

132
00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:42,833
I’m not sure how it’s going to hang.

133
00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,360
I just thought to put it in 
a box, send it down there,

134
00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:47,834
stack it up, and put it in a box.

135
00:10:58,920 --> 00:11:00,711
Making this piece for Brazil.

136
00:11:01,560 --> 00:11:02,560
And now it’s Brazil.

137
00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,480
I mean you’re making a 
piece in your studio in L.A.

138
00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:08,400
and you’re thinking about Brazil, you know?

139
00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:09,420
You never been to Brazil.

140
00:11:09,420 --> 00:11:10,140
BRADFORD: That’s it?

141
00:11:10,140 --> 00:11:10,760
SPEAKER: Yeah.

142
00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:12,725
BRADFORD: Well, I think 
it...I think it kind of works.

143
00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,668
Ta da! (LAUGHS)

144
00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:42,215
PRACTICE was a video that 
I did a couple years ago,

145
00:11:42,935 --> 00:11:45,607
and I wanted to do a video 
of me playing basketball.

146
00:11:46,295 --> 00:11:49,604
But I wanted to create a condition, a struggle.

147
00:11:50,161 --> 00:11:54,171
I would create this huge antebellum 
hoop skirt out of a Lakers uniform.

148
00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:59,920
My goal was to focus on dribbling 
the basketball and making the shot,

149
00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:03,320
but obviously when you have an 
antebellum skirt fanning out

150
00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:06,034
about four feet around you, 
that's going to be difficult.

151
00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,440
And it was an incredibly windy day, one of those

152
00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,920
Santa Anna, southern California, windy days

153
00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:20,241
where everything was blowing.

154
00:12:22,995 --> 00:12:26,365
What it created was this billowing of the wind.

155
00:12:26,365 --> 00:12:30,000
It would catch underneath the dress.

156
00:12:32,283 --> 00:12:33,947
It became almost like I was floating.

157
00:12:35,760 --> 00:12:37,440
And I would fall and get up.

158
00:12:37,440 --> 00:12:41,415
I would make the shot sometimes and 
I wouldn’t and I would always get up.

159
00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:47,920
It was about roadblocks on every level,

160
00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:55,138
cultural, gender, racial, 
regardless that they’re there.

161
00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,166
It is important to continue.

162
00:13:01,520 --> 00:13:03,433
You keep going.

163
00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:06,200
You keep going and so that’s what it was.

164
00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:07,280
And I made the hoop.

165
00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:08,440
I made the shot.

166
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:09,868
I always make the shot.

167
00:13:10,280 --> 00:13:12,534
Sometimes it takes me a 
little longer to get there.

168
00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:15,156
But I always make the shot.