Kimowan Metchewais
May 26, 2009
Chapel Hill prides itself on being a thriving arts community, but I fear they often overlook a few of their best assets, like the instructors at UNC, or more specifically Kimowan Metchewais. There’s been a silent suffocation of alternative arts, or alternative artists in the South, the scene leans more towards arts and crafts – thank God we have this minority educating the next generation of privileged white kids.
His work with paper has me curious about a variety of creative sources, the first of which, being both his right and left brain hemispheres. I’m no mathematician, but each piece follows a grid like pattern, every square carefully considered in a larger pattern. While the measurements may not be exact, there is some unconscious decisions to keep within certain restrictions. That said, the carefully selected pieces of paper retain a history and a purpose to them, definitely a creative choice. These “tiles” are pieced together to form the story Kimo has in his mind, much like the mind will piece together a story from a photograph standing alone. There’s so much complexity to his thought process.
And process seems to be one of the things this teacher focuses on. He delivers a task to his students and then completes the assignment himself to be sure the process works – and to be involved personally with the variety of outcomes. He holds each step: cut, layout, attach, present, in a much higher regard than other artists who may be goal oriented or continually seeking a finished product. I privately wish that more illustrators would cease work midway, letting the viewers finish the thought how they desire.
Lastly, Kimo stated that he spends a good amount of time on the streets he grew up on, within the reservation, so I wonder if the draw to a camera is his ability to capture life behind the confines of Native American land – a place not many white folk frequent. Just generalizing here, but I feel that most of the art that is produced by this particular group of people concerns heritage and skills that are passed from one generation to another such as silversmithing, painting, but rarely photography. The roots of Kimo’s work do appear to lie in preservation.
What makes this artist even more talented, is his absolute gratitude for his talent. Kimo has endured the effects of hemiplegia, an illness that caused paralysis in one side of his body and made it rather difficult for him to pursue the same type of creative outlet he was working in prior to the onset. This hasn’t stopped him and what’s more, he’s convinced that this suffrage is fate’s way of forcing him to find new avenues of process and to realize that he can work smarter instead of working harder. “Thank you, hemiplegia, for taking away one side of my body and changing everything. Not that I needed everything to change, but you have given me a new kind of life… Thank you for the simplicity. I like it a lot better.”
Check out more of Kimo’s work and read his zine Images & Other Curios here.
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