‘Prey’ artist ends Native American studies celebration entertainment

Lancaster – USC Lancaster’s 17th Annual Native American Studies Celebration concludes Nov. 16 at 5:30 p.m. with an artist talk and Q&A with Brent Learned, whose art can not only Seen in the end credits of Hulu’s “Prey,” and also in the video for Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” but also in the center’s newest exhibit, “Humor, Parody, and Satire II: Pop Culture and Native America.” Resident Art”.

As the lead artist for The Prey, Learned was responsible for creating the artwork that the Comanche tribe in the film will create on the rocks during the time period shown in the film. Learned is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and a relative of the Comanche Nation.

“When the Plains Indians depicted high-altitude events, it was usually a calendar or a story of a great battle,” Learned said. “You’re dealing with science fiction and the paranormal, so we had to come up with a design how Indians at the time saw the predator.”

Creating the end credits in ledger art style, Learned drew every character in the film, then sent the artwork to seven other artists to be copied and put into the storyboard.

“This is the first time ever that an Indian artist has been involved in a project like this that ends up in a film,” Learned said. “We’ve never had this level of ledger art.”

Learned was also selected to work with a Los Angeles-based production company to develop the official music video for Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.” Until now, he said, the only YouTube search results for the song came from the band’s performances on the “Midnight Special” variety show in the early 1970s.

“The Marvel movie ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ introduced this song to a whole new generation of music lovers,” Learned said. “They really wanted to put an American Indian style in this video because it was an American Indian band. I came up with a storyline of a man trying to find his true love and he heard that only he could hear the beat; it was a woman on another planet who sent him this beat.”

Although this is his painting on display at the center, Learned has worked in a variety of media, including printmaking, sculpture, watercolor, drawing and pen and ink. In his talk, Learned will discuss his views as an American Indian and what he says is satirical themes covering political and historical events.

“What I really want people to take away is that this is a guy from Oklahoma who is portraying his tribe and telling stories and giving a voice to his ancestors because my ancestors really didn’t have much to say at the time They survived,” Learned said. “They moved from the plains to the reservation and slowly took their culture away from them during the Mandate of Heaven. This is to let people know that we are still here, that we are still here to tell our stories and hope Share our culture because that’s the Indian way.”

“Humor, Parody, and Satire: Pop Culture and Native American Art” is on view at the Center for Native American Studies through March 4, 2023.

For more information on the Learned presentations and other events held in conjunction with the 17th Annual Native American Studies Celebration, visit the Center’s website: www.sc.edu/lancaster/NAS.