"Native America: In Translation" at USF's CAM - Forbes
Artists have favorite artists too. Artworks they encounter and connect with deeply same as those of us who can鈥檛 draw a circle.
(Abs谩alooke (Crow)) with the photography of Kimowan Metchewais (1963-2011; Cree, Cold Lake First Nations). Red Star, a celebrated contemporary artist, first came across Metchewais鈥� work when friend and posted a remembrance of Metchewais on Facebook.
鈥淚 was really intrigued because it sounded like this person was very special,鈥� Red Star told Forbes.com. 鈥淚 looked at . I started looking at his posts and his photos and found that I liked what he was doing.鈥�
Kindred spirits.
Native photographers who grew up on reservations in the western part of the continent before going off to college and studying fine art.
Both using historical photographs of Indigenous people in their artmaking.
鈥淭here were so many things he was doing (that) I was interested in my own work,鈥� Red Star said. 鈥淗e had a (series) of Indians and eyewear, and a lot of those photos were of Crow people, I think even my great great grandfather was in there. I thought that was kind of funny for him to focus solely on cataloging different historical pictures of Native people wearing eyewear. Certain things like that, I could tell he was coming at things at a different angle that was refreshing and looking at details within photos the same as I do.鈥�
When Red Star was undertaking a Smithsonian artis鈥檛s research fellowship at the National Museum of the American Indian in 2018 and 2019, she serendipitously came across part of Metchewais鈥� archive housed there on one of her final days. She dug through many of his pictures and some of his journals, exploring his work in depth for the first time.
鈥淔rom there, it became kind of an obsession,鈥� Red Star admits.
She subsequently met more people who knew Metchewais, saw his work popping up more and more, more people told her what an amazing person he was.
鈥淲e probably would have been big nerds together because we're both looking at ledger drawings, or the way that he talks about North America being a crime scene; he investigates, I call what I'm doing 鈥榬esearching,鈥欌�� Red Star said. 鈥淎lso for me, I've always felt like an outsider, I've always been the only Native person in art programs that I've been in and knowing that there was another artist out there鈥搕hat we would just get each other鈥搘ould have been incredible for me. That does happen, I have other artists I do find that, and it's an awesome feeling to have people where you don't have several layers to get through before you're speaking the same language.鈥�
Red Star鈥檚 efforts to raise up the lesser-known First Nations artist comes via an exhibition she curated assembling the wide-ranging work of nine Indigenous artists, including Metchewais, who pose challenging questions about identity and heritage, land rights, and histories of colonialism.
The presentation can be seen at the 黑洞社区Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa August 25 through December 1, 2023.
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