Southwest Museum Docent Council Unveils Tongva Tiat Sculpture

Tongva Tiat Sculpture Dedication
Los Angeles, CA (October 15, 2009) —A Tongva Tiat plank canoe sculpture donated to the museum by the Southwest Museum Docent Council was dedicated on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Mt. Washington.

The sculpture, installed in the patio at the museum entrance, is a steel model of the Tiat, the traditional plank canoe with which the Tongva/Gabrielino peoples plied the waters between the mainland and the Channel Islands. The sculpture is the work of local artist, Gerardo Hacer, who creates what he calls “steel origami”.

This sculpture of a Tongva plank canoe is presented to the Southwest Museum in tribute to the First Peoples of the Los Angeles area by those of us who tell the stories.
Southwest Museum Docents, 1982-2009

Gerardo Hacer was born to teenage Mexican-American gang members and taken by the state at birth to be placed in a series of foster homes. Lost in a lifestyle of violence and drug abuse, he escaped by creating a playful world that evolved from origami cranes. “In time, my escape escaped me. I became the lifestyle with one reach: death. In its grasp, I found Calder’s massive, red-orange, industrial, Los Angeles sculpture, “The Four Arches”. He and it gave me a new reach: life,” said Hacer. It was then he decided to be a product of his actions, not of his experiences, of what happened to him.  He decided to break from the violence of his birth name “Gomez-Martinez” and chose the name “Hacer”, to make, to build, and became a sculptor. He designs and builds large-scale structural, metal, origami animals in bold, flat, solid colors. “As I learn to shape my work, I, afraid, move forward through the familiar unknown and learn to re-shape myself, lessening the past’s grip,” says Hacer. “I like the dynamic, formative process hidden by my seemingly simple designs.”