Inuit Art Quarterly - Bone: From Ancient Material to New Vision

IN THIS ISSUE:

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ᐃᓄᖕᓂᖔᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᐅᑦᑐᖏᓐᓂᑦ Inuknigaaqtut Inuit Sanaguaqsimajangit ammalu Tautunnginit Contemporary Inuit Art & Perspectives

Bone

From Ancient Material to New Visions

Karoo Ashevak Making Faces — Monstrous Forms and Menacing Figures Exploring Greenlandic Tupilat — Susie Silook A Life of Art and Activism

CONTENTS

31.1

Inuit Art Quarterly Bone

Front

Features

Back

04 Contributors

26 Challenging Convention: The

Expressive World of Karoo Ashevak

58 A Man of Many Faces: Karoo Ashevak

in 35mm

The IAQ sat down with photographer

LEGACY

05 From the Editor 10 Message from the Board 10 Foundation Update 5 WORKS

12 Bugs, Insects and Springtime Crawlies

Though his career was tragically short-lived, renowned carver Karoo Ashevak lives on through his unique and incredibly detailed sculptures. In this feature, those closest to Ashevak remember the artist’s exuberance, which was reflected in the emotional depth of his work.

by Leslie Boyd HIGHLIGHTS

14 A sneak peek at some current

and upcoming exhibitions and projects.

CHOICE

18 Judas Ullulaq

by Darlene Coward Wight CHOICE

20 Kenojuak Ashevak

by Melanie Zavediuk PROFILE

22 Niap

by Britt Gallpen

BELOW

Page 34 Beloved by collectors, these diminutive ivory sculptures are anything but sweet and dainty.

34 Through Water and Ice: The Story

of Greenlandic Tupilat

From agents of revenge to souvenirs for soldiers returning from war to popular crafts for tourists, tupilat have played many roles. However, one thing has remained consistent: these figures are an important part of life in Greenland.

by Sheila Romalis

40 Crafted from Bone and Ivory: An

Interview with Susie Silook

This prominent Yupik/Iñupiaq carver’s works have electrified audiences for over three decades. In this interview, she discusses her community’s influence on her art, her vision of a more compassionate society and how bans on materials are affecting Alaska Natives.

Pamela Harris, who lived in Talurjuaq in the early 1970s and who remembers Ashevak as a dynamic man and artist.

by John Geoghegan CURATORIAL NOTES

60 raise a flag

Onsite Gallery/OCAD University

A curator reflects on the legacy of a foundational national collection and its power to reframe dialogues on the scope and shape of what a nation might be.

by Ryan Rice REVIEW

64 Insurgence/Resurgence

Winnipeg Art Gallery

by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski REVIEW

66 Padloo Samayualie: North & South

Feheley Fine Arts

by Angelica Demetriou 70 News LAST LOOK

72 Maudie Okittuq

by John Geoghegan

46 To the Bone: Spirits, Skulls and Stories The IAQ is excited to share a unique grouping of drawings, prints, photographs and sculptures that share a common subject of bones.

Leading and emerging artists working across the Arctic share images that show bone as not only a leading material for Inuit artists but also an important inspiration.

ON THE COVER

Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974 Talurjuaq) — Figure c. 1973 Whalebone, ivory, antler and stone 29.2 × 68.5 × 15.3 cm NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

Bone

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Front

Michelle Baikie. The Hunter, 1998. Digital photograph. 71.12 x 50.80 cm. Collection of the artist.

Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut

MAY 26-September 30 • Winnipeg Art Gallery Curated by Dr. Heather Igloliorte, co-chair of the WAG's Indigenous Advisory Circle Organized by // Organisé par The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery Division, St. John’s, NL. This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, the Nunatsiavut Government, and the International Grenfell Association. Ce projet a été rendu possible en partie grâce au gouvernement du Canada, au gouvernement du Nunatsiavut et au International Grenfell Association.

Pitseolak Qimirpik - Kimmi rut, NU, "Majestic owl in distinctive apple cerise stone"

MASTHEAD

CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL

Leslie Boyd

The Inuit Art Quarterly is published by the Inuit Art Foundation.

Executive Director and Publisher Alysa Procida

Leslie Boyd was employed by the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative for 32 years, in the position of Director of both Kinngait Studios and its marketing office, Dorset Fine Arts. She has curated several Inuit art exhibitions, including Napachie Pootoogook (2004) and Uuturautiit: Cape Dorset Celebrates 50 Years of Printmaking (2009). She is Editor of Cape Dorset Prints: A Retrospective. Fifty Years at the Kinngait Studios (2007) and currently works as an Inuit art consultant, curator and writer. PAGE 26

Established in 1987, the Inuit Art Foundation is a not-for-profit charitable organization that provides support to Canada’s Inuit arts communities and is the sole national body mandated to promote Inuit artists and art within Canada and internationally.

This magazine relies on donations made to the Inuit Art Foundation, a registered charitable organization in Canada (BN #121033724RR0001) and the United States (#980140282).

The Inuit Art Foundation gratefully acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through contributions from the Inuit Relations Directorate, Northern Governance Branch, Northern Affairs Organization, at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.

Subscriptions subscribe@inuitartfoundation.org Canada: $33/yr. Excludes GST/HST. US: $44/yr. Elsewhere: $48/yr.

GST/HST #121033724RT0001.

The Inuit Art Quarterly is a member of Magazines Canada.

Publication date of this issue: March 15, 2018 ISSN 0831-6708 Publication Mail Agreement #40050252 Postmaster send address changes to Inuit Art Foundation. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:

Editor Britt Gallpen Assistant Editor and Circulation Manager John Geoghegan Copy Editor Simone Wharton Editorial Assistant Claire Christopher Advertising Nicholas Wattson Design Tung

— Programs Coordinator Camille Usher Inuit Artist Database Program Coordinator Ashley McLellan Inuit Artist Database Program Officer Rebecca Gray Inuit Artist Database Program Officer Valeriya Kotsyuba Igloo Tag Program Coordinator Bryan Winters

Ryan Rice

Inuit Art Foundation Archives Officer Emily Jolliffe

Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake, is an independent curator and the Delaney Chair in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University in Toronto. Most recently Rice served as Chief Curator at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was also Co-founder and former Director of the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective, and he currently sits on the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Education Council as well as the boards of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and the Native American Arts Studies Association. PAGE 60

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Mathew Nuqingaq | Iqaluit, NU

inuitartfoundation.org

Chair Sammy Kudluk | Kuujjuaq, QC

FROM TIME TO TIME WE MAKE OUR SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES AVAILABLE TO COMPANIES WHOSE PRODUCTS OR SERVICES WE FEEL MAY BE OF INTEREST TO YOU. TO BE EXCLUDED FROM THESE MAILINGS, PLEASE SEND YOUR REQUEST, ALONG WITH A COPY OF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION MAILING LABEL, TO THE ADDRESS ABOVE.

Pamela Harris is a celebrated photographer whose work can be found in the collections of the Canada Council Art Bank and the National Archives of Canada. Following her first trip to Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU, in 1972, she was instrumental in the creation of a community darkroom, where she taught local women how to develop and print photographs. Most recently, this archive was exhibited at the Ryerson Image Centre as part of The Darkroom Project (2017). Harris is also the author of Another Way of Being (1976) and Faces of Feminism (1992). PAGE 58

Printing Sonic Print

Inuit Art Foundation 215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 400 Toronto, ON, M5T 2C7 (647) 498-7717

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE PUBLISHER IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. THE INUIT ART QUARTERLY IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR UNSOLICITED MATERIAL. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE INUIT ART QUARTERLY ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE EDITORS OR THE INUIT ART FOUNDATION. PRINTED IN CANADA. DISTRIBUTED BY MAGAZINES CANADA.

Pamela Harris

Colour Gas Company

Secretary-Treasurer Beatrice Deer | Montreal, QC Jamie Cameron | Toronto, ON Patricia Feheley | Toronto, ON Heather Igloliorte | Montreal, QC Helen Kaloon | Uqsuqtuuq, NU Jimmy Manning | Kinngait, NU

Sheila Romalis

—

EDITORIAL ADVISORY COUNCIL Mary Dailey Desmarais Sarah Milroy Taqralik Partridge

FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA

Inuit Art Quarterly

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Sheila Romalis is an Arctic anthropologist, conducting extensive field research throughout the circumpolar North over the last 30 years, with a concentration on East Greenland. She has presented papers on tupilak figures at the Canadian Ethnological Society Meeting and the Inuit Studies Conference, as well as for the Inuit Art Society. Romalis also guest curated the exhibit Tupilaq, Greenland Spirit Figures (1984) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Museum of Anthropology and has lectured at both UBC and Simon Fraser University. PAGE 34

Spring 2018

FROM THE EDITOR

Turn to page 46 to see how artists are exploring bone as both medium and inspiration.

Shuvinai Ashoona (b. 1961 Kinngait) — Salt Bones (detail) 2016 Ink and coloured pencil 121.9 × 165.1 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS

Bone

Each new issue of the Quarterly provides our team with the opportunity to do a “deep dive” into a specific material or idea to bring you the best on the subject, peppered with unanticipated and often surprising details, anecdotes or historical gems. For us Bone is no exception. Without pause, our favourite linguistic find was learning the colloquial term for the inner tissue of bone, often utilized by sculptors to great effect to reveal texture and add heft to a carving. Also known as cancellous bone or trabecular bone, this very porous material is called spongy bone.

The name, however, is misleading in its whimsy. Bone is a fundamentally temperamental, unforgiving and ultimately delicate medium that can vex even the most skilled carver.

One of the carvers most adept at and celebrated for manipulating and coaxing this distinct material is cover artist Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974), whose short and brilliant career is documented in “Challenging Convention: The Expressive World of Karoo Ashevak” by Leslie Boyd. Masterful in his technique and expansive in his distinct visual vocabulary, Ashevak is rightfully remembered as a creative catalyst among his community of Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU. As first described in our pages by Marie Routledge and Ingo Hessel (IAQ 5.3), Ashevak’s stylistic influence on other artists has been well documented.

Despite the enduring popularity of his work among curators and collectors alike, this is the first full-length profile on Ashevak to be published by the IAQ, and we are delighted to share this thorough look for those familiar with his oeuvre, as well as those encountering his whimsical and distinctive forms for the first time. We also hear from a close friend of the artist, photographer Pamela Harris, whose personal photographic archive of Ashevak’s work and life has remained largely unpublished—until now. Complementing Ashevak’s aesthetic contributions, the fantastical and transformative works of fellow Talurjuaq artists Judas Ullulaq (1937– 1999) and Maudie Okittuq are also featured in this issue.

The rendering of evocative and narrative forms in bone, particularly those capturing intimacy or strangeness, the grotesque and

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the remarkable, is seen throughout the Features section of this issue. In “Crafted from Bone and Ivory: An Interview with Susie Silook” we hear from the celebrated Yupik/Iñupiaq sculptor on the power of her tender renderings of female figures as well as the searing political critiques embedded within their sinewy forms. In this issue’s Portfolio, “To the Bone: Spirits, Skulls and Stories,” we explore bone as subject—the substance of both legend and life. And finally, from the shores of Greenland, “Through Water and Ice: The Story of Greenlandic Tupilat” by anthropologist Sheila Romalis draws us into the shadowy realm of these elusive beings, while highlighting those contemporary artists bringing them to light today.

Despite the inherent history of their materiality, works in bone by Inuit artists have come to be synonymous with vitality, imaginativeness and humour—qualities that respond to the requirements of bone itself, in all its intricacy and resoluteness.

Simultaneously brittle and resilient, ancient and modern, bone is perfectly inconsistent and wonderfully adaptable, and it offers what I think is a fruitful starting point to our 2018 publishing calendar. I hope you enjoy this issue on bone in its varying, and often contradicting, forms.

Britt Gallpen Editor

Front

Aujuittuq (Grise Fiord) Qausuittuq (Resolute)

Somerset Island

Beechey Island

GREENLAND

Devon Island MELVILLE BAY

Sirmilik National Park Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet)

Kugluktuk (Coppermine)

Karrat Fjord

BAFFIN ISLAND

Usqsuqtuuq (Gjøa Haven)

NUNAVUT

Uummannaq Fjord

Qikiqtarjuaq (Broughton Island)

Ilulissat Itilleq Fjord

Sisimiut Coast Kangerlussuaq Qeqqata Kommunia Nuuk

Torngat Mountains National Park

Kangiqsualujjuaq (George River)

Adventures in Inuit Art

Hebron Nain

LABRADOR Akami-Uapishk-KakKasaukMealy Mountains National Park Reserve

CANADA

Into the Northwest Passage

NORTHWEST PASSAGE AUGUST – SEPTEMBER, 2018

Out of the Northwest Passage

ARCTIC SAFARI AUGUST, 2018

NEWFOUNDLAND

L’Anse aux Meadows Terra Nova National Park St. John’s

Arctic Safari

Greenland & Wild Labrador

GREENLAND & WILD LABRADOR

SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER, 2018

Adventure Canada’s award-winning small-ship expeditions to the Arctic and sub-Arctic engage, educate, and entertain. We connect people to the land and to each other through immersive experiences in wildlife, culture, art, learning, and fun. Join us.

1.800.363.7566 adventurecanada.com

14 Front Street South, Mississauga, ON L5H 2C4, Canada, TICO Reg# 4001400

Image : Jeneen Frei Njoot and Tsēma Igharas

THE CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ART BIENNIAL - 4TH EDITION GUEST CURATORS: NIKI LITTLE AND BECCA TAYLOR NÍCHIWAMISKWÉM | NIMIDET | MY SISTER | MA SŒUR MAY 3 - JUNE 22, 2018

NOVEMBER 1, 2018 - JANUARY 1, 2019

La Guilde, Montreal, QC Art Mûr, Montreal, QC Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke, QC Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire, QC McCord Museum, Montreal, QC

Art Gallery of Mississauga, ON

Black

THANK YOU

PHOTO ROBERT FRÉCHETTE

Merci!

You, the generous donors listed below, ensure the Inuit Art Quarterly is published and that artists throughout Inuit Nunangat are supported and celebrated. Your end-of-year gift provides stable funding for our programs year-round and supports the exciting future of Inuit art. The Inuit Art Foundation relies on the generous support of donors like you to do this important work and is pleased to recognize donors who have contributed between December 2016 and December 2017. Thank you so much!

“I’d like to thank our donors for their generosity and for sharing their passion for Inuit art. By supporting the Inuit Art Foundation, you allow artists to do more of what they love and allow us to share their beautiful work.”

BEATRICE DEER SECRETARY-TREASURER, INUIT ART FOUNDATION

Why I Give “ I feel so lucky to be able to share Inuit art with others. I think it’s important to get to know artists and their art, both old and new, and to get involved. One of the best ways to do this is through the Inuit Art Quarterly and by supporting the Inuit Art Foundation.”

Please Consider Supporting the Next 30 Years: How You Can Help

DR. MARIE A. LOYER

The Inuit Art Foundation wants to hear from you!

Contact us at contact@inuitartfoundation.org or 647-498-7717.

Donations are essential to the programs that promote and celebrate Inuit art and artists.

As a registered charitable organization in Canada (BN #121033724RR0001) and the United States (#980140282), the Inuit Art Foundation welcomes donations, sponsorships, legacy gifts and in-kind contributions.

Give the gift that always fits! To learn more about donating on behalf of a friend or loved one visit: www.inuitartfoundation.org/support/give

Sustainers $5,000+ Susan Carter John and Joyce Price (KAMF) The Herb and Cece Schreiber Foundation and one anonymous donor

$2,500–$4,999 Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron Informa Canada Patrick Odier

Inuit Art Quarterly

$1,000–$2,499

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$250–$499

The Assaly Family Rene Balcer Shary Boyle Business for the Arts Andrew Chodos Donald and Pat Dodds Fath Group/O’Hanlon Paving Ltd. Patricia Feheley (Endowment and KAMF) David Forrest Janice Gonsalves Erik Haites Inuit Art Society (Publications) The Michael and Sonja Koerner Charitable Foundation David and Liz Macdonald

Jordan Banks, in honour of Paul Desmarais III Dr. Yvonne C. Condell Arthur Drache, CM, QC Joyce Keltie Katarina Kupca Christine Macinnes Kathryn C. Minard Joyce Nies and Peter Witt (Publications) Joram Piatigorsky Paul Pizzolante Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart Mark Richardson Sanford and Deborah Riley Mark Rittenhouse Leslie Roden-Foreman Barbara Turner

James Abel, in honour of Xanthipi Abel Heather Beecroft (Publications) Denise Cargill L.E. Cleman (Publications) Lynne Eramo Leah Erickson Harald Finkler and Nadine Nickner Alain Fournier Ed Friedman Dr. James M. Harris Margaret and Roger Horton Heather Igloliorte and Matthew Brulotte, in memory of Philip Igloliorte Lou Jungheim and Thalia Nicas, in memory of Thomas Webster (Publications)

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Spring 2018

THANK YOU

$250–$499 cont’d Charles Kingsley A.B. Kliefoth Ann and Michael Lesk Linda Lewis and Lorie Cappe Peter Lyman, in honour of Tagak Curly Patricia McKeown Richard Mohr, in honour of Adventure Canada, Heather Beecroft, and Lou Jungheim and Thalia Nicas (Publications) Margaret Newall Allan P. Newell Michael J. Noone Sharon and Lee Oberlander, in honour of David Ruben Piqtoukun (Publications) Susan A. Ollila Onsite Gallery Paula Santrach Celine Saucier Muriel Smith Michael and Melanie Southern Elizabeth Steinbrueck Jay and Deborah Thomson (Publications) Carol Thrun Manon Vennat Jaan Whitehead David and Catherine Wilkes (Publications) Norman Zepp and Judith Varga Mark and Margie Zivin

$100–$249 Amy Adams Lea Algar-Moscoe Paul Alkon Jim Bader Catherine Badke Christel Bieri (Publications) Catherine Birt Karen Brouwers, in honour of Elisapee Ishulutaq Tobi Bruce Peter Camfield Mary Campbell Carol Cole, in honour of Billy Gauthier

Bequests

Kate Permut Ann Posen Philip and Kathleen Power Victoria Prince Robin and David Procida Frank Purcell (Publications) Bayard D. Rea Dr. Timothy W. Reinig Eva Riis-Culver Marcia H. Rioux Judith S. Rycus Paul Shackel Mark Shiner Seiko Shirafuji Janet Shute Colleen Suche Charles Tator Hunter Thompson Roslyn Tunis (Publications) Peter Van Brunt Gail Vanstone James and Louise Vesper Mary Jo Watson Gord Webster William Webster (Endowment) Claude Weil, in honour of Jim Shirley (Endowment) Scott White Ditte Wolff and one anonymous donor

Celia Denov Ginette Dumouchel, in honour of Tommy Niviaxie (KAMF and Publications) Leslie Eisenberg Jon Eliassen Carol Ann Ellett (KAMF) Lyyli Elliott Britt Gallpen and Travis Vakenti Judith Gavin Barbara A. Goetzelman Claire S. Gold Deborah D. Gordon Nelson Graburn, in honour of Katsuak Tumasi Mark Gustafson Tekla Harms Carol Heppenstall Ingo Hessel, in memory of Lucy Tasseor Albert Holthuis James Igloliorte Mark Igloliorte Robert Jackson Rosi and David Jory Carola Kaegi Johanna Kassenaar William Kemp Nancy Keppelman Jo-Ann R. Kolmes Ellen Lehman (Endowment) Joe and Sandra Lintz Dr. Marie A. Loyer Maija M. Lutz Catherine Madsen, in honour of Thomas and Winifred Madsen (KAMF) Susan Marrier Elizabeth McKeown G. Lester McKinnon Shannon McManus Robert Michaud Anne Milochik and Steve Potocny Nancy Moore Gary Nelson Leon Oberlander Donna and Hal Olsen Rawlson O’Neil King (KAMF) Louisa L. O’Reilly Christa Ouimet and Woody Brown (Endowment) Donald Penrose

Friends of the Foundation Up to $99 Mary Anglim Eric Anoee (Endowment) Eric Barnum Susan Baum Catherine Black Black Dog Publishing Terry Bladholm David Burns (KAMF) Caroline Chan Brian Dalton Anne-Marie Danizio François Dumaine (KAMF) Lisa Eisen, in honour of Tiiu Strutt

Shirley Finfrock Alexander Ganong Judith Gavin Alan and Paula Goldstein Karen and David Gorsline Barbara Hale John A. Hanjian Kathryn Hanna Mary Hanson Janet Heagle Jacqueline Hynes Laurence Jacobs Malcolm Kottler Peter Kovacik Rebecca Lee, in honour of David Lee Laura MacDonald Edward Maloney Doyleen McMurtry Rowena Moyes Barbara Myslinski Suzanne Nash (KAMF) Arlene Nichols Heinrich Nemetz Dr. Ronald Olin Pierre-François Ouellette Prue Rains Blaine Rapp Helena Rati, in honour of Andre Forni Diane Ravenscroft Leslie Reid Wendy Rittenhouse Enid Rokaw Sheila Romalis Anita Romaniuk Evelyn Savitzky Karine Schweitzer-Bordes Mari Shantz Scenery Slater Gregory and Lisa Sonek Ann Sprayregen (KAMF) Bertha K. Thompson Darlene Tymn Lowell Waxman John Weber, in honour of Gina Montevecchi Michael Wiles Edward Allan Wright Bea Zizlavsky and five anonymous donors (KAMF [1])

PRIMARY SUPPORTER

IGLOO TAG TRADEMARK PROGRAM SUPPORT

INUIT ART QUARTERLY SUPPORT

INUIT ARTIST DATABASE SUPPORT

Virginia Watt Perpetual Trust

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Front

FOUNDATION UPDATE

MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD

A Bold New Year PHOTO LISA GRAVES

As we kick off our 2018 publishing calendar with the Spring issue on bone, I’d like to take this opportunity to look back on the accomplishments of the Inuit Art Foundation over the last few months. Since taking ownership of the Igloo Tag Trademark in July 2017, our staff have worked tirelessly to ensure the program is able to serve Inuit artists to their maximum benefit. To do this, the Foundation has begun a broad series of consultations with artists, art dealers and other stakeholders to discuss the future of the tag, including two productive consultation sessions held at this year’s Northern Lights Conference in Ottawa, ON. In tandem, the Inuit Art Quarterly has also launched its Artist Subscription Program, providing Inuit artists with easy access to the IAQ and its unique and celebrated coverage. Finally, the winter season saw the return of the Virginia J. Watt Scholarship, given to a Canadian Inuk who demonstrates an interest in Inuit art and cultural studies. As a jury member, I am delighted that Nancy Saunders is this year’s recipient, and I look forward to following her career over the coming years.

As we prepare to wrap up our 30th anniversary year on June 2, 2018, I am encouraged by the hard work and dedication that has brought the Foundation to this point and excited for what the next 30 years hold. In the spirit of looking forward, I am pleased to present you with our Spring issue. Enjoy!

Heather Igloliorte Board Member, Inuit Art Foundation

This winter, the IAF participated in several initiatives that promoted Inuit artists and their work throughout Inuit Nunangat.

Read the updates here to discover how the IAF is fulfilling its mandate to support the development of Inuit art.

Nancy Saunders Wins the Virginia J. Watt Scholarship On January 25, 2018, the IAF was pleased to announce Nancy Saunders as the 2017–18 recipient of the Virginia J. Watt Scholarship, valued at $2,500 and awarded annually to aid students in their academic pursuits. From Kuujjuaq, QC, Saunders is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in studio arts at Concordia University in Montreal.

An accompanying Profile on her artistic pursuits can be found on page 22 of this issue.

Saunders was named following an intensive jurying process that comprised applications from more than 20 students.

“Nancy was selected for the scholarship for her commitment to Inuit arts and culture,” said jury member Ryan Rice. “She reaffirms Inuit culture as integral to her art practice and research by reclaiming the vitality and voice embedded in Inuit traditional creative expression. Her interest in merging media, old and new, will carry forward Inuit art and culture well into the future.” The 2017–18 jury also included Sandra Dyck, Curator, Carleton University Art Gallery, Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Concordia University Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and

Community Engagement, and Dr. Carla Taunton, Associate Professor in the Division of Art History and Critical Studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.

The next call for applications will open up in the fall of 2018 to be awarded for the 2019 winter semester.

IAF + Northern Lights 2018 Follow us on Twitter: @InuitArtFdn Like us on Facebook: Inuit Art Foundation Follow us on Instagram: inuitartfoundation Inuit Art Quarterly

Between January 31 and February 3, 2018, the IAF joined more than 200 exhibitors and 1,200 delegates at the 2018 Northern Lights Conference at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, ON. The Foundation was pleased to host two days of professional development workshops for artists, including sessions on how to succeed and grow as a small arts business, 10

accessing funding opportunities and the future of the field with regards to exhibition and economic activities. The IAF also led a fruitful discussion on the Foundation’s artist support opportunities, including how to create or claim a profile in the Inuit Artist Database, scholarship and award opportunities and the future of the Igloo Tag Trademark.

Spring 2018

FOUNDATION UPDATE

Inuit Artist Database Edit-a-Thon Update The Inuit Art Foundation partnered with Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University to host the first Inuit Artist Database Edita-Thon on November 16, 2017. The event was held at Onsite Gallery in conjunction with the exhibition raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015).

The edit-a-thon provided attendees the opportunity to write new artist biographies for Inuit artists represented in raise a flag and was well attended with more than a dozen first-time contributors present.

Contributors were enthusiastic and eager to continue adding information to the database and to learn from and refine previously published material.

The Foundation welcomes public contributions to the database from all who are interested. To learn more about Inuit artists or to contribute your knowledge see iad.inuitartfoundation.org, or to inquire about hosting an edit-a-thon at your local school, museum or gallery contact us at database@inuitartfoundation.org.

IAQ Artist Subscription Program Launches The Inuit Art Foundation successfully launched its Inuit Art Quarterly Artist Subscription Program on January 31, 2018.

This unique offer allows Inuit artists and cultural workers across Canada to subscribe to the world’s only magazine devoted to Inuit and circumpolar arts for one year for only $5.00. The IAF is delighted to extend this incredibly reduced rate after extensive feedback from artists on their desire to regularly access the print publication.

The program also satisfies one of the Foundation’s key tenets of keeping artists informed of and inspired by the work of their creative peers.

As the IAF looks forward to growing this one-of-a-kind program over the coming months, we happily invite any current subscribers and IAF supporters to purchase subscriptions as gifts for artists.

To learn more, contact us at iaq@inuitartfoundation.org or call 647-498-7717 x102.

To learn more about what we’re up to, visit us online at: inuitartfoundation.org

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Igloo Tag Survey In conjunction with the IAF’s participation as a Gold Sponsor at Northern Lights 2018, the Foundation conducted two successful consultation sessions—one with only artists and one with artists, funders, government representatives, dealers, distributors, curators and other stakeholders—to clarify concerns about the future of the Igloo Tag Trademark and to discuss next steps for its revitalization.

In all, more than four dozen participants shared their insights and visions for the trademark and advised the Foundation on their primary areas of interest and concern as the IAF kicks off its extensive consultation tour. To add your voice to this important conversation or for more information on the trademark, current licensees, upcoming consultation dates, how to participate in an online consultation and more, see iglootag.inuitartfoundation.org.

Artist Book Signing at the AGO On January 24, 2018, the Inuit Art Foundation attended the launch of the Earthlings catalogue at shopAGO in Toronto. Artists Pierre Aupilardjuk and Shary Boyle signed copies of the catalogue produced to accompany the nationally touring exhibition organized by Esker Foundation. The IAF has been watching this journey since the fall of 2016 when Aupilardjuk and Boyle worked together at Medalta, a museum, gallery and arts facility in Medicine Hat, AB, during a month-long ceramics residency. Earthlings features ceramics created by the two artists at this residency, alongside works from Roger Aksadjuak, Shuvinai Ashoona, Jessie Kenalogak, John Kurok and Leo Napayok.

Noah Tiktak Shares His Father’s Legacy On Christmas Day 2017 the IAF published the Inuit Art Quarterly’s Winter 2017 Legacy piece “Tiktak: An Artist and His Work” on the IAQ website as well as our social media channels. The piece celebrates John Tiktak as the first Inuk artist to have a solo exhibition. Noah Tiktak, his son, shared our Facebook post and commented: “Thank you so much for this!! I remember when my father went away for ‘something to do with art’ and this was it. I still have his ‘hand carving tools.’ I so miss and love my father.

Forever alive in my heart.”

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Become a Sustainer and help support the Inuit Art Foundation!

Inuit Art Foundation Sustainers Program The Inuit Art Foundation relies on the generosity of donors like you to develop programming to support the work of Inuit artists. The IAF is excited to announce the launch of our Sustainers Program. All donors are recognized in the IAQ and on the website in the following categories: $5,000+ · Opportunity to be affiliated with a specific IAF project or program. · Annual luncheon with IAF to discuss new programs and explore new works by Inuit artists. · Opportunities to meet artists at special events and receptions. · A one-year subscription to IAQ. · Invitations to IAQ launches. · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website. $2,500+ · Annual luncheon with IAF to discuss new programs and explore new works by Inuit artists. · Opportunities to meet artists at special events and receptions. · A one-year subscription to IAQ. · Invitations to IAQ launches. · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website. $1,000+ · Opportunities to meet artists at special events and receptions. · A one-year subscription to IAQ. · Invitations to IAQ launches. · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website. $500+ · A one-year subscription to IAQ. · Invitations to IAQ launches. · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website. $250+ · Invitations to IAQ launches. · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website. $100+ · Acknowledgement in the magazine and on the website.

Front

5 WORKS

Spiders, Insects and Other Creepy-Crawlies IAF staff share their top works for a buggy spring 1/

Michael Massie, CM, RCA

The Endurance Game (2016) Anyone familiar with Nunatsiavummiuk artist Michael Massie’s work knows that the root of his artistic practice is tied to coming up with clever titles and wonderful backstories for his sculptures and teapots. The Endurance Game tells the story of three mischievous brothers trying to outlast each other during a caribou hunt, when mosquito clouds are at their thickest. This figure is of the first brother to attempt the game, using a fresh hide as a protective blanket against the onslaught. In Labrador, where people often put on fly nets to wash their vehicles, it’s a familiar feeling to wear bugs on every square inch of your body; running to escape them is the only recourse when we all inevitably lose the game.

BRYAN WINTERS

Igloo Tag Program Coordinator

2/

Helen Kalvak, CM, RCA

Summer Scene with Flowers and Insects (1970) I’ve never seen a moth the size of a man or a worm the size of a child, and maybe Helen Kalvak (1901–1984) didn’t either, but in the height of the summer, when insects are buzzing, chirping and stinging, they can take up so much mental energy that they may as well be the size of a caribou or a small car. In this electric felt-tip pen drawing, Kalvak shows two men cautiously approaching a swarm of creepy-crawlies. Are they friendly, or are their motives sinister? Kalvak’s marks are short and mostly vertical, giving her drawing incredible texture and vitality. Kalvak was trained as an angakkuq (shaman), and although the title Summer Scene with Flowers and Insects gives no indication of the following, perhaps the insects are an angakkuq’s spirit helpers, which might explain their unusual size.

Inuit Art Quarterly

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Michael Massie (b. 1962 Happy ValleyGoose Bay) —

Helen Kalvak (b. 1901–1984 Ulukhaktok) —

LEFT

ABOVE

The Endurance Game 2016 Serpentinite, bone, birch, ebony and brass 21.6 × 20.3 × 12.7 cm

Summer Scene with Flowers and Insects 1970 Felt-tip pen on paper 45.5 × 60.8 cm

COURTESY SPIRIT WRESTLER GALLERY

COLLECTION WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

JOHN GEOGHEGAN

Assistant Editor and Circulation Manager Spring 2018

5 WORKS

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Sheojuk Etidlooie (b. 1929–1999 Kinngait) — Untitled (Three spiders) 1998/99 Coloured pencil and graphite 66.7 × 22.9 cm

Unidentified artist

Ice Worm (c. 1970)

COURTESY MARION SCOTT GALLERY

Very little is known about ice worms outside of the fact that they can survive and even thrive in conditions that would kill most other living things. Although less than popular as subjects among Inuit artists, ice worms are significant cultural creatures. Often featured in stories as revolting parasites, the darkened centre of this work creates a visual whirlpool, luring in the viewer’s gaze, just as the worm might draw blood from its host. However, scholars Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Oosten have also noted that worms can be helping

spirits and symbols of transformation. In this context, the upward movement of the worm can be read as aspirational, stretching or reaching toward a new beginning. As we welcome the move from winter to spring, this work seems to be a fitting metaphor to capture this regenerative transition from death to new life.

CLAIRE CHRISTOPHER

Editorial Assistant

5/

Sheojuk Etidlooie Unidentified artist (Kangiqsualujjuaq) — Ice Worm c. 1970 Antler 2.5 × 15.2 × 2.5 cm ROBERT AND JUDITH TOLL COLLECTION, PEARY MACMILLAN ARCTIC MUSEUM PHOTO DEAN ABRAMSON

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Janet Kigusiuq, RCA

Untitled (2005) If people think of Arctic insects at all, they are probably the impressively large bees and flies immortalized by artists in works on paper (and occasionally in nature documentaries).

Smaller insects, like those stitched into this wall hanging, may not loom as large in the public imagination, but they are no less present. Janet Kigusiuq’s (1926–2005) composition creates a sense of both anticipation and insidious intimacy: large numbers of small lice ring the work, waiting for the opportunity to extend their infestation. Her expert stitching imbues them with a realistic sense of movement, their legs seemingly scurrying on top of the duffle, transforming a bright, charming wall hanging into something more ominous and far more interesting.

Although it was brief by any measure, the career of graphic artist Sheojuk Etidlooie (1929–1999) was both unique and illustrious.

Coming into her practice late in life, Etidlooie was featured in every Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection between 1994 and 1999, and garnered major acclaim for her drawings, entirely selling out her first exhibition in 1998. Works such as Untitled (Three spiders) remind us of the artist’s distinct visual vernacular: rotund, voluminous forms, often abstracted, rendered in coloured pencil and set against expanses of empty space.

Included in Northern Line: Drawings by Sheojuk Etidlooie (2007), this work is indicative of the artist’s approach to composition, whereby singular elements often float, or in this case dangle or dance, front and centre.

BRITT GALLPEN

Editor

Janet Kigusiuq (1926–2005 Qamani’tuaq) — LEFT

Untitled 2005 Wool and embroidery thread 23 × 24 cm

ALYSA PROCIDA

Executive Director and Publisher Bone

Untitled (Three spiders) (1998/99)

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Front

HIGHLIGHTS

Exhibition Highlights A behind-the-scenes look at some notable projects on view now

To see a full list of exhibitions, visit our enhanced calendar online at: calendar.iaq.inuitartfoundation.org

Alootook Ipellie (1951–2007 Iqaluit/ Ottawa) — The Unexpected Resurrection of Geeusi 2006 Ink on illustration board 50.6 × 38 cm COURTESY CARLETON UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

SEPTEMBER 17–DECEMBER 9, 2018

Alootook Ipellie: Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) OTTAWA, ON

A journalist, political cartoonist, editor, graphic designer and poet, Alootook Ipellie (1951–2007) left behind a veritable treasure trove of works when, sadly, he passed away.

Starting in Ottawa, ON, this first retrospective of the artist will travel to the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, NU, the Art Gallery of Inuit Art Quarterly

Hamilton and Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg throughout 2019 and 2020. The exhibition was jointly curated by Sandra Dyck, Director of Carleton University Art Gallery, Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Assistant Professor of Art History at Concordia University, and Christine Lalonde, Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada. Here, Dyck discusses the project: 14

A major part of the story of this exhibition is the epic quest to find artworks by Alootook— he never had a dealer and by and large his work was not collected by public art galleries, so it’s mostly in private collections. Heather, Christine and I compiled a list of all the galleries and individuals who might own his work, and then systematically contacted them over several years. We also used social media, put an ad in the IAQ, got significant media coverage and made a poster to put up around Ottawa and Iqaluit. Alootook had a show of drawings at the Manx Pub in Ottawa in 1993, so I contacted them for tips and names. While Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border is up at CUAG, we’ll be presenting a small show in October at the Manx, featuring original Nuna and Vut comic strips.

The exhibition will have about 75 works, including a selection of amazing drawings from the book Arctic Dreams and Nightmares (1993). We have many original Ice Box and Nuna and Vut comic strips, and individual editorial and political cartoons that were published in the magazines Inuit Monthly and Inuit Today. They’re wonderful satirical cartoons that are small and will demand close looking, so we’re thinking about how best to present them. Representing Alootook’s career as a writer is another interesting challenge. The exhibition will also feature some of his posters, illustrations and other design work, to demonstrate his expertise in graphic design. We’ll include original copies of some of the magazines in which Alootook’s cartoons, poems and articles were reproduced, because there’s quite an important interplay between the visual and the textual in his work and thinking.

We want to make sure visitors make links between the interrelated aspects of his practice. The exhibition is called Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border after the title of one of his poems. It’s a perfect title for the exhibition because he wrote it to describe his daily struggle, “walking in two different worlds.” We all thought, “What other title can there be?” – Sandra Dyck To learn more about the work of Alootook Ipellie, visit us online at: iaq.inuitartfoundation.org

Spring 2018

HIGHLIGHTS

Tim Pitsiulak (1967–2016 Kinngait) —

Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013 Kinngait) —

TOP (LEFT)

TOP (RIGHT)

BOTTOM

Swimming Bear 2016 India ink and coloured pencil on paper 74.9 × 105.4 cm

The Enchanted Owl 1960 Stonecut 55.8 × 65.7 cm

Bountiful Bird 1986 Stonecut and stencil 62.5 × 83.1 cm

ALL IMAGES REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS ALL IMAGES COURTESY ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

JUNE 16–AUGUST 12, 2018

Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak Art Gallery of Ontario TORONTO, ON

This summer, the evocative drawings of Kenojuak Ashevak, CC, ON, RCA (1927–2013) and her nephew Tim Pitsiulak (1967–2016) will be united at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in this Inuit-led exhibition, co-curated by the AGO, the Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage project and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative. We asked Jocelyn Piirainen, Koomuatuk (Kuzy) Curley and Taqralik Partridge, all members of the curatorial team, for their thoughts on three of the works appearing in the exhibition:

When I look at Swimming Bear (2016), Tim Pitsiulak’s drawing of a polar bear swimming through dark water, [it makes me] think it is something he would have seen from a boat while hunting. The drawing is something he saw in real life.

Tim made work about animals from the North, from Nunavut, animals that live with Inuit. I also really like the drawings of machines that he made; they are pretty fascinating. I grew up with these big machines around town, and he really captured what that feels like.

– Kuzy Curley

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Kenojuak Ashevak’s The Enchanted Owl (1960) is arguably one of the most iconic images in Canadian art history. It is simple in its form, but strong in its use of line and bold colour. From my perspective as an emerging curator, it is a spectacular artwork that has rightfully earned recognition and praise for Kenojuak, and it is one I am excited to present in the exhibition.

As a young Inuk, it is a masterpiece that continues to baffle me. How was she able to create such strong lines, shapes and detail? Her artistry and skill remain sources of inspiration. – Jocelyn Piirainen

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What has struck me as we prepare for the show is the progression from Kenojuak’s early pencil drawings of complex supernatural forms to later works such as this print. I think about her working in her tent and drawing on her knowledge of the spirit world from an Inuk perspective and how that might have informed her depiction of these creatures.

Bountiful Bird (1986) makes you wonder, “What kinds of tricks does the owl have up its sleeve(s) that it can hide all these other birds?” I love her ability to create an almost symmetrical composition that she then breaks. It’s that broken symmetry that gives you something to think about.

– Taqralik Partridge Front

HIGHLIGHTS

Nattilik woman photographed during Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen’s Northwest Passage expedition, 1903–6 COURTESY MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY PHOTO GODFRED HANSEN

ONGOING

Amundsen’s Gjoa Haven Collection, 1903–1905 Nattilik Heritage Centre and the University of Oslo (UiO) Museum of Cultural History KHM.UIO.NO/GJOAHAVEN

This collaborative website brings together objects, photographs and documentation related to a collection of traditional Inuit material culture made around Uqsuqtuuq (Gjoa Haven), NU, and collected between 1903 and 1905 by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. The project, which has been co-developed by the Nattilik Heritage Centre in Uqsuqtuuq and the Museum of Cultural History at UiO, started in 2010 to make the entire collection of artifacts and photographs

currently held in Uqsuqtuuq and Oslo available to the public via a digital online sharing portal. We reached out to Tone Wang, Adviser in the Museum of Cultural History’s Section for Exhibition and Research Administration, to hear more about the process: Since the early 1990s my colleagues and I have been discussing whether it would be possible to return some of the artifacts to

Uqsuqtuuq, as we feel that it is very important for them to be returned to where they were collected. Everyone was interested, but it wasn’t really doable until the Nattilik Heritage Centre was built around 2010. After we learned of the construction, the issue of whether it would be possible to return some items was discussed, and I think everybody was extremely enthusiastic to do so. We have returned 16 objects, which are now on display in the centre. The selection was done in collaboration with the Hamlet Council, and the best of what the collection had to offer was returned.

From the very beginning it was obvious that it wouldn’t be feasible to return everything to Uqsuqtuuq, so the only way for someone to access the entire collection would be on the Internet. The most important thing has been easy access—especially to the photographs. First, nearly all of the material was digitized and uploaded to a searchable website. The second step was learning what everything was and properly identifying it. We held workshops with elders in Uqsuqtuuq, Talurjuaq (Taloyoak) and Kugaaruk. Basically, we had discussions about how members of the community wanted to structure things and what they thought was important. Then we sat around a table and put out the pieces one by one, and people told stories and talked about the objects and how they were used, how they were made and how they were important to the communities. It was a lovely and incredibly informative process that continues to be expanded via the online portal.

– Tone Wang

ONGOING

Kulusuk Museum KULUSUK, EAST GREENLAND

In the absence of a regional museum or cultural centre to house the treasures local to the area, one industrious resident of the hamlet of Kulusuk, East Greenland, took it upon herself to create one. While the basis of the collection is built on family items, anthropologist and author of “Through Water and Ice: The Story of Greenlandic Tupilat” (pg. 34) Sheila Romalis explains what else was involved in bringing this singular vision to life: While the ancient artifacts belonging to the ancestors of the inhabitants of East Greenland are abundant, there was no museum to house these precious items— until Justine Boassen, a resident of Kulusuk, decided to make one. On her own, she travelled up and down the east coast collecting tools, implements, clothing, weapons, toys and adornment—visiting about eight Inuit Art Quarterly

settlements in all and even going as far as Southwest Greenland to procure some important pieces.

It took Boassen almost a year to acquire an older home on the edge of the hamlet to serve as the museum. After painting, repairing the roof and having the electricity rewired, partitions and shelving were put in, and the artifacts arranged. For this last task, she used the displays of both the Tasiilaq Museum, in East Greenland, and the Nuuk Museum, in West Greenland, as her guides.

Kulusuk Museum has only three small rooms, but it hosts a wealth of East Greenlandic artifacts from as far back as 1884, when Tunumiit first encountered Danish anthropologist Gustav Holm. The objects are arranged in chronological and logistical order and organized in pleasing displays. In one room Boassen has even recreated the inside of a peat home with all the necessary implements, seal pelts and a few surprise artifacts. There is a complete kayak, set of traditional hunting clothing and set of the fancy dress of today.

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Should you decide to go to Greenland, please visit the Kulusuk Museum, as it is well worth a visit to this gem of Arctic resource material in this most fascinating corner of the Arctic world.

– Sheila Romalis

A tupilak (carving of an avenging spirit) from the Kulusuk Museum collection COURTESY KULUSUK MUSEUM

Spring 2018

Congratulations Nancy Saunders!

2017-2018 recipient of the Virginia J. Watt Scholarship

To support scholarships like this and other initiatives for Inuit artists and cultural workers donate today at

inuitartfoundation.org/donate

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Timootee “Tim” PITSIULAK, Beluga whales and a bowhead, 2016. Black ink on paper. Photo: EVOQ Architecture.

Bone

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CHOICE

Judas Ullulaq Inuruutuq

by Darlene Coward Wight

Inuit Art Quarterly

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Spring 2018

CHOICE

Expressive eyes and mouths in Ullulaq’s carvings always register a wide range of emotions, and even his animals have human-like personalities.

Judas Ullulaq (1937–1999 Uqsuqtuuq) — Inuruutuq (Shaman’s transformation) 1988 Muskox horn, walrus tusk, caribou antler, stone, sinew, ivory and whalebone 112.5 × 68 × 52 cm COLLECTION WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

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The sculpture Inuruutuq was included in Art and Expression of the Netsilik, an exhibition held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1997.

In a conversation with me at the opening of the exhibition, Judas Ullulaq (1937–1999) explained that it depicted the transformation of an Inuk shaman into his or her animal helpers, in this case a muskox, a walrus and a caribou. “In the old days,” he recounted, “a shaman could turn into any animal. When this happened, the walrus tusks, caribou antlers or muskox horns grew as the shaman turned into another being.”

Ullulaq was born in Thom Bay, located in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, the youngest of eight brothers and one sister.

His sister, Kanayuq, was the mother of sculptor Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974), and four of his brothers also became talented carvers: Joata Suqslak (1918–1986), Charlie Ugyuk (1931–1998), Stephen Aqqaq (1933– c. 1985) and Nelson Takkiruq (1930–1999).

Although there were times when food was scarce, the artist remembered his childhood with considerable joy. A young Ullulaq enjoyed making craft items. In an interview in 1983, the artist told me that when he was still a boy and living in an igloo, he liked to join the women while they did their sewing.

Ullulaq particularly enjoyed sewing dolls “like a girl, with the women.” He made his first carvings in 1961—small animals and models with scenes of igloos and dog teams.

Ullulaq moved his family to Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU, when his first child, his daughter Rebecca Qamukkaaq, came of school age in 1966. He was one of a small group of people who first began making whalebone carvings when the material was brought into the community in the late 1960s. He began carving in stone as well after 1973, when the carving stone was brought into the community from a deposit at Murchison Lake.

In 1980 Paleajook Eskimo Co-operative Manager Graham Robinson arrived and took a serious interest in encouraging and marketing carvings by Talurjuaq artists.

Ullulaq’s carving style gained a new maturity and scale at that time. His love of meticulous craftsmanship manifested itself in finely detailed faces, using horn and antler inlay.

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In 1982 Robinson left Talurjuaq and Ullulaq moved to Uqsuqtuuq (Gjoa Haven), NU, to be closer to his wife’s family. It was in 1983, in Uqsuqtuuq, that I met Ullulaq, and he explained to me that the co-op manager was uninterested in purchasing his carvings.

I was then working to encourage and promote Inuit art with the Arctic Co-operatives’ central marketing agency, Canadian Arctic Producers, and I quickly moved to remedy the situation. We were soon receiving increasingly impressive sculptures by Ullulaq in the Ottawa warehouse. His work was eventually featured in over 90 exhibitions, and he travelled widely to attend openings.

His last such trip was to the opening of Art and Expression of the Netsilik, along with Maudie Okittuq and Nick Sikkuark (1943–2013). Sadly, Ullulaq passed away two short years later on January 2, 1999. His elder brother, Charlie Ugyuk, predeceased him by two months. Ullulaq admired his brother’s meticulously detailed carvings and had learned to carve by watching him.

Expressive eyes and mouths in Ullulaq’s carvings always register a wide range of emotions, and even his animals have human-like personalities. He was a true pleasure to know, always cheerful, optimistic, considerate and generous. He loved to laugh, and his sculptures often seem to reflect the wide smile for which he was known.

He worked constantly at his carving and worried about his family when he ran out of carving material.

Ullulaq once told me that the most important thing for him was to be original, and Inuruutuq is a good example of this goal. The vertical piling of elements that incorporate organic materials from the three animal helpers represented is unique.

Originality was a tremendous challenge given the huge body of work he created over the years. It is a testament to his skill that few other artists have created the same diversity of subjects while maintaining such a high degree of workmanship.

— Darlene Coward Wight is Curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

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CHOICE

Kenojuak Ashevak Sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Awakening

by Melanie Zavediuk

Inuit Art Quarterly

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Spring 2018

CHOICE

Ashevak applied herself and persisted in learning how to use the medium to explore her imagery in a more painterly form to great success.

In the Arctic, moonlight reigns for much of the winter, making a joyful occasion of the sun’s return in spring. The monumental print Sun’s Awakening (2010) by Kenojuak Ashevak, CC, ON, RCA (1927–2013), pays tribute to this time of year. Evoking happy feelings, the piece radiates outwards to the viewer through the warmth of its colours and the large, cheerful rendering of a smiling sun against a soft, grey background.

Imagery of the sun was Ashevak’s second most favoured subject after her iconic owls. The first noted example was Woman Who Lives in the Sun, in 1960, followed in 1961 with The Return of the Sun and then with Arrival of the Sun in 1962.

In 1968 she created Sun Bird. Ashevak often combined owl and sun imagery, as in the 1963 print Sun Owl. “I am the light of happiness and I am a dancing owl,” says Ashevak in the 1978 publication Landmarks of Canadian Art. Over the course of her celebrated career, Ashevak would return to this radiant subject time and time again.

One of her last efforts with this theme is Sun’s Awakening.

This complex print was created on two plates, causing the central sun figure to be split down the centre to charming effect.

The work combines sugar lift, etching and aquatint, and each print was finished with watercolour. Sugar lift is an attractive

technique to many artists as it allows greater freedom and results in a more painterly effect within the etching and aquatint processes. Ashevak made this print using a water-based sugar solution that was applied to the plate. The solution was then “lifted” by being peeled away, leaving a soft, painterly line. As with other etching processes, areas can be masked off to create deeper or lighter lines to hold the ink.

Using the sugar lift process for Sun’s Awakening resulted in a looser rendering than normally found in Ashevak’s work, which is characterized by its strong, precise lines and controlled, vibrant colouring.

This print edition of 25 came about after Paul Machnik of Montreal’s Studio PM, always looking to provide new sources of inspiration, introduced the sugar lift technique to several interested artists in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, in 2006.

Machnik felt that the process might provide Ashevak with an alternative printmaking technique to her usual painstaking process.

Ashevak applied herself and persisted in learning how to use the medium to explore her imagery in a more painterly form to great success. This approach required her to stand or kneel over the printing plates and apply the solution from a squeeze bottle. This gestural application resulted in beautiful fluid lines. After the lines were

applied, a white coat was overlaid to provide the highlights in the sun’s face. Each print in the series was then hand finished in watercolour by Spanish artist Beatriz Sobrado Sámano. The watercolour, accomplished in a measured, light hand, resulted in each print having subtle differences in appearance.

In addition to Sun’s Awakening, Ashevak made several other prints using this technique. The earliest was The Arrival in 2007, followed by three prints that were included in the 2010 and the 2011 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collections, and in 2013 another multi-panel print in nine segments, titled Emerging Spirits.

– Melanie Zavediuk is the Owner and Director of the Inuit Gallery of Vancouver. For over two decades, she has focused on the promotion and sale of Inuit and Northwest Coast First Nations art. A past board member for the Vancouver Inuit Art Society, Zavediuk has been an invited panellist at numerous events, including the Adäka Cultural Festival, the Great Northern Arts Festival and the Nunavut Arts Festival. Sun’s Awakening is available exclusively through the gallery.

Kenojuak Ashevak (1927–2013 Kinngait) — OPPOSITE

Sun’s Awakening 2010 Sugar lift, etching, aquatint; each print hand-painted

by Beatriz Sobrado Sámano 96.5 × 129.5 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY INUIT GALLERY OF VANCOUVER

RIGHT

Kenojuak working on sugar lift etching plates in Montreal, 2010 COURTESY STUDIO PM

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PROFILE

Niap

Niap (b. 1986 Kuujjuaq) — Qajuuttatuqak (old cup) 2015 Watercolour and marker 27 × 20 cm PHOTOS AMY PROUTY

by Britt Gallpen

“Being in art school has allowed me to ask myself questions,” explained emerging artist Niap (Nancy Saunders), the 2017–18 winner of the IAF’s Virginia J. Watt Scholarship, when we spoke in late January. “Why do I choose certain materials or subjects? Why do I want to do this work? I find now, the thinking process happens through or during the creating—while I’m painting or carving.

I didn’t know that people ‘thought’ art in that way. Being in school has broadened my idea of art and has expanded my vocabulary.”

Now based in Montreal, where she studies studio art at Concordia University, Inuit Art Quarterly

Niap divides her time between the city and her home community of Kuujjuaq, QC—a place that continues to deeply influence her work. “When I was young in Kuujjuaq, there were no activities outside of school—no dance classes or piano lessons. The only thing that I found was easy to access was pen and paper. I would go camping and bring my pen and paper and draw the landscape.

I was maybe eight or nine,” says Niap. In the ensuing years, Niap explored various career paths, including education and arts administration, but nothing “woke [her] up in the morning or kept [her] up at night”—until she 22

began to more fully investigate her artistic practice. What followed has surprised even Niap herself. “Four years ago, I had no idea that I could this. I didn’t even know I could be an artist, but the positive response from my community [has been] really important to me. I have been learning more about and finding this new pride in my culture, which has allowed me to create depth in my work.

I think my generation of First Nations, Metis and Inuit people is reaffirming our culture, and I am taking a stand on who I am as an Inuk woman.”

Within the past year alone, Niap’s art world has included a major institutional commission with a mural for the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, international travel to create new works and to present on her practice and an offer of commercial gallery representation, with even more projects and commissions on the horizon, including an exhibition at OBORO this spring in Montreal, with Dutch performance and visual artist Nick Steur. Niap will work alongside Steur, who works primarily with materials such as stone, sand, steel and water, to realize a series of suspended audio-sculptural works depicting concepts such as wind or water through stone, shadow and song. Niap, who has been working in stone for the past four years, relishes the chance to both push and respond to the material, explaining that working with stone requires an artist to have both a vision for the final piece and the ability to allow that vision to shift and evolve. “Carving is so unforgiving,” she explains. “If you make a mistake, you have to work with your mistake. I’m always making notes about sculptures I’d like to do, and what really interests me is taking ephemeral things, like the northern lights or a series of throat songs, and [giving] them physical form.” This impulse to embed her work with complex and layered narrative ties Niap to established and well-regarded artists such as Mattiusi Iyaituk, an artist whom Niap counts as an important influence. “There are amazing opportunities for Inuit artists,” concludes Niap before we end our call.

“I feel like I’ve tapped into something great.”

For those of us following Niap’s artistic development, the feeling is mutual.

Spring 2018

PROFILE

ABOVE

Untitled 2017 Paper, ink and thread Dimensions variable BELOW

Untitled (detail)

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Nicotye Samayualie - Drunk Tank- 30 x 23 Inches- Coloured Pencil, Ink

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Inuit Art Quarterly

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Spring 2018

Ningiukulu Teevee

www.feheleyfinearts.com gallery@feheleyfinearts.com 65 George Street, Toronto

March 17 - April 7, 2018

416 323 1373

Ningiukulu Teevee, MARVELOUS FAN, 2017, ink & coloured pencil, 23 x 30 in.

Juggling Songs (detail), Jemima Angelik Nutarak

T:7.375â&#x20AC;?

T:4.9653â&#x20AC;?

U NTIL SEPTEMBER 3, 201 8 historymuseum.ca/arcticmodernity #arcticmodernity

A travelling exhibition developed by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre and the Canadian Museum of History, with the assistance of the Pond Inlet Archives, Ilisaqsivik, Ittaq and Piqqusilirivvik, and funded in part by the Museums Assistance Program of the Government of Canada.

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Challenging Convention ᐱᔭᕐᓂᓐᖏᑐᑰᓇᒃᐸᖅᑐᑦ The Expressive World of Karoo Ashevak ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖏᑦ ᐃᒻᒥᒍᑦ ᑳᕈᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ

—

by Leslie Boyd

ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑐᖅ ᓚᔅᓕ ᐳᐃᑦ

Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974) was an Inuit art sensation. In his brief career, he had solo exhibitions at major galleries in Toronto, Montreal and New York. His work had a dramatic impact on the southern art world, challenging the popular consensus about Inuit art and breaking boundaries between Inuit and contemporary Canadian sculptors. Canadian writer and art collector George Elliott exclaimed that Ashevak’s works in the 1973 exhibition at the American Indian Arts Center in New York “stood up with the best in the world, in the toughest city in the world.” 1 The critical and financial success of this exhibition launched Ashevak’s brilliant but short-lived career. Tragically he and his wife, Doris, were killed in a house fire in their home community of Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU, in 1974. They were both in their early thirties, and Ashevak had been carving for only five years.

The name Taloyoak means “the big hiding place” in Inuktut, referring to the large hunting blinds that were built with piled stones along the caribou migration routes. Many of these stone formations still mark the landscape’s rocky terrain, along with boulder-strewn coastlines and an abundance of small lakes and rivers. Ashevak was born and raised on this land in 1940, learning to hunt and fish, which he loved but which would not sustain him for long. Radical social and economic changes were sweeping through the North in the 1950s and 60s, causing Ashevak and his wife to move permanently to the settlement at Talurjuaq (known then as Spence Bay) in 1968.

Ashevak took up carving as a source of income and quickly developed an exceptional skill and a unique style. There was no deposit of suitable carving stone in the area, so caribou antler was shipped in from Bathurst Inlet and whalebone from Kuuganajuup Nunanga (Somerset Island), left by the prehistoric Thule people and later by the European whalers. The weathered and bleached bone quickly became the material of choice for Ashevak. He was, according to Judy McGrath, “a man completely at home with his materials.” 2 For Ashevak the idea for a sculpture was inextricably tied to the particular piece of whalebone he chose to represent it. The idea came first, followed by the search for the right materials. Whalebone is difficult to predict and control: it is porous and fragile in some places and then so hard in others as to make it impossible to carve.

It can also crack or split at any time, defying even the most skilled technician. This was all part of the intrigue and the challenge for

Ashevak. He made use of the bone’s natural shape and even its flaws, ingeniously transforming it to correspond with his overall vision.

Ashevak most enjoyed the “fine finishing touches of his pieces” and had “a passion for tools and what he could do with them,” as McGrath relates.3 The artist used stone, ivory, antler, bone, string, sinew and even wood to make eyes, teeth, tusks, appendages and various hand-held objects, all of which were vital to the final conception of his work. There were no half measures for Ashevak; a work wasn’t finished until all the fine detailing and polishing were complete. His approach and his work were respected by his contemporaries—if not always liked­­—and imitated by some, which irritated Ashevak. The length of time it took him to finish a work certainly affected his output and his income, which were important to Ashevak but, in the end, were not the main factors in his motivation.

For Ashevak carving was a deep-rooted, creative impulse, and the care and pride he took in his work were simply part of the painstaking process of bringing his ideas to life.

Human, or human-like, forms and faces predominate in Ashevak’s body of work. Most of these forms stand alone, rarely in relation to other people or animals—a feature that is so characteristic of Inuit art. From the beginning, Ashevak’s work invited distinction from the usual conventions of Inuit art. According to George Swinton (whose 1972 book Sculpture of the Eskimo became a seminal reference) Inuit sculptors tended to work in a narrative tradition, illustrating events or activities of their daily lives or legends from their oral traditions.4 Ashevak’s ability to communicate beyond the specific narrative was exceptional and astounding. His faces are emotionally charged with expressions of angst, fear, astonishment, confusion, menace and awe. Eyes are concentric circles in contrasting materials, lopsided and unmatched, wide and frequently wild. Nostrils and mouths are open, gaping, showing a tongue and rows of pegged teeth that are carved from bone or ivory and laid in like implants.

Ashevak’s work has been variously described as grotesque, surreal, bizarre and fantastic, and these exaggerated features certainly evoke a disquieting supernatural eeriness. As art historian Ingo Hessel has observed, Ashevak’s style was ideally suited to works depicting shamanism and the spirit world, “and whalebone, with its unusual natural shapes and porous, weathered textures, seems the perfect material to express existence on an otherworldly plane.” 5

Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974 Talurjuaq) — PREVIOUS SPREAD

Spirit 1972 Whalebone, ivory, sinew and stone 40 × 62.5 × 10 cm

GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT FINE ART COLLECTION ON LOAN WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTO LIANED MARCOLETA PIFFERRER

RIGHT

Figure c. 1973 Whalebone, ivory, antler and stone 29.2 × 68.5 × 15.3 cm

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

OPPOSITE

Flying Shaman c. 1972 Whalebone, antler, ivory and baleen 23.5 × 58 × 14.5 cm TD BANK COLLECTION PHOTO TONI HAFKENSCHEID

Inuit Art Quarterly

28

Spring 2018

ᐱᒋᐊᓂᖓᓂᑦ, ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᓐᖏᑑᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᓴᕿᔮᓛᖑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᑯᔭᒃᓴᐅᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂ.

PREVIOUS SPREAD

ᑕᕐᓂᖅ 1972 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᑑᒑᖅ, ᐃᕙᓗ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅ 40 × 62.5 × 10 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ

ᓄᓇᕗᑦ ᒐᕙᒪᒃᑯᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᓄᐊᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂᑦ, ᕕᓂᐲᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐊᖓ ᓚᐊᐃᓐ ᒫᑯᓕᑕ ᐱᕗᓗ

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ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ (1940–1974) ᐃᓄᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᒻᒪᕆᐅᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ. ᕿᓚᒥ ᐃᖅᑲᓇᐃᔮᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ, ᐃᓅᓪᓗᓂ ᓴᕿᔮᕐᑎᑦᑎᕙᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᖕᖏᔪᓂ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖕᓂ ᑐᓛᓐᑐ, ᒪᓐᑐᕆᐊ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓅ ᔪᐊᒃ. ᓴᓇᖃᑦᑕᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐊᖕᖏᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᒃᑐᐃᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᑦ ᓄᓇᖓᓂ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓕᕆᕕᐅᔪᓂᒃ, ᐱᔭᕐᓂᓐᖏᑲᓗᐊᖅᑎᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᐅᓂᖅᐸᐅᑎᑦᑎᓇᓱᒋᐊᒃᓴᖅ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᑕᖃᕈᓐᓃᖅᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᑭᒡᓕᖃᖅᑎᑦᑎᓂᖅ ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᑦ. ᑲᓇᑕᒥ ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑎ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᓄᐊᑦᓯᕙᒃᑐᖅ ᔪᐊᔨ ᐃᓕᐊᑦ [George Elliott] ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᓇ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ 1973 ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖕᒦᑦᑐᑦ ᐊᒥᐊᓕᒐᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓕᕆᕕᖓᑦ ᓅ ᔪᐊᒃ “ᓵᕿᔮᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᔪᖏᓛᖑᔪᓄᑦ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᒥ ᐱᔭᕐᓂᓐᖏᓂᖅᐹᒥ ᓄᓇᓕᖅᐸᐅᔭᓂ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᒥ.”1 ᐅᑯᐊ ᑲᔪᓯᑦᑎᐊᕆᐊᓕᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᐅᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᐅᓇ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ ᐱᒋᐊᖅᑎᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᐊᔪᖏᑦᑐᒻᒪᕆᐋᓘᒐᒥ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓅᓯᒃᓴᑭᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ. ᐱᓂᖅᓗᖕᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᓕᐊᖓ, ᑐᐊᓕ, ᑐᖁᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᒡᓗᖓ ᐃᑭᑎᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᖕᖏᕋᒥᖕᓂ ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᖅ, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ, ᑕᐃᑲᓂ 1974. ᐅᑭᐅᖃᓕᖅᖢᑎᒃ 30-ᖑᓵᕐᓂᑰᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖃᑦᑕᓕᖅᖢᓂ ᐅᑭᐅᓂᑦ ᑕᓪᓕᒪᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᒃ. ᐅᓇ ᐊᑎᖅ ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᖅ ᑐᑭᖃᖅᑐᖅ “ᐊᖕᖏᔪᐋᓘᖕᒪᑦ ᐃᓂᖓᓂ ᑕᓗᓯᒪᔪᖅ”, ᐊᑎᖃᕈᑖ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᐅᓂᐊᓐᖏᓐᓇᒥᒃ ᐋᕿᒃᓱᐃᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐅᔭᖃᓂᒃ ᑕᒪᐅᓐᓇ ᑐᒃᑐᐃᑦ ᐊᑐᖅᐸᒃᑕᖏᑦᑎᒍᑦ ᐃᓂᖏᑦᑎᒍᑦ. ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᐅᑯᐊ ᐅᔭᖃᑦ ᓱᓕ ᓄᓇᖓᓃᑦᑐᑦ ᐅᔭᕋᐃᓐᓇᐅᒐᒥ ᓄᓇᖓ, ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊᓗ ᐅᔭᕋᓱᒡᔪᐃᑦ ᓯᒡᔭᖓᓃᑦᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᒥᓱᒻᒪᕆᐋᓗᐃᑦ ᑕᓰᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑰᑦ. ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐃᓅᓂᑯ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᕈᖅᓴᓪᓗᓂ ᑕᒫᓂ ᓄᓇᒥ 1940-ᓂ, ᐃᓕᑦᑎᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᖑᓇᓱᒍᓐᓇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖃᓗᒐᓱᒍᓐᓇᕐᓂᕐᒥᒃ, ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᐊᒥᒐᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᖕᒪᑦ ᐃᓅᔾᔪᑎᑐᐊᕆᔭᕆᐊᒃᓴᖏᑦ ᐊᑯᓂ. ᐃᓅᓯᖓᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᖃᕆᐊᖃᓕᕐᓂᖓᑦ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ ᓇᓂᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ 1950-ᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ 1960-ᓂ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᐅᓂᖓᓄ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ

ᓄᓕᐊᖓ ᓅᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᓄᓇᑖᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᓄᑦ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ 1968. ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖃᑦᑕᓕᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᖃᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕿᓚᒥᐋᓗᒃ ᐊᔪᕈᓐᓃᑦᓯᐊᕇᖅᖢᓂ ᓴᓇᔪᓐᓇᑦᓯᐊᓕᖅᖢᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᐋᕿᒃᓯᔪᓐᓇᖅᖢᓂ. ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅᑖᕐᕕᖃᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐊᑑᑎᒐᔭᖅᑐᓄᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᒐᒃᓴᓂᒃ ᓄᓇᖓᓂ, ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᑐᒃᑐ ᓇᒡᔪᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑎᑭᕕᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᕿᖓᐅᕐᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖏ ᑰᒐᓇᔫᑉ ᓄᓇᖓᓂᑦ, ᕿᒪᒃᑕᐅᓂᖁᓂᒃ ᑐᓂᕐᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᖃᑖᓂ ᖃᓪᓗᓈᑦ ᐊᕐᕕᕋᓱᒃᑎᑦ. ᓯᓚᒦᑯᑖᖕᓂᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᑯᖅᓯᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓴᐅᓃᑦ ᐊᑐᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ. ᐅᓇ, ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᔫᓂ ᑎᑯᓚ, “ᐊᖑᑎ ᐊᖕᖏᕋᖅᓯᒪᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᖅ ᐱᖁᑎᒥᓂᓗ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑎᒥᓂᓗ.”2 ᐋᓯᕚᖕᒧᑦ ᐅᓇ ᐃᓱᒪᔾᔪᓯᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᑭᓲᑯᑦᑎᖏᒃ ᑭᓱᖑᐊᓕᐊᕆᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖏ ᓴᓇᔪᒪᔭᓂ. ᐅᓇ ᐃᓱᒪᓕᕈᑖ ᐱᒋᐊᖄᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ, ᒪᓕᒡᖢᒋᑦ ᕿᓂᖅᖢᓂ ᓈᒻᒪᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᓂᐊᖅᑕᒥᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᔭᒃᓴᓂᑦ. ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ ᐱᔭᕐᓂᓐᖏᑐᑦ ᓯᒃᑭᓲᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᐅᓚᑕᒃᓴᐅᑦᓯᐊᕋᓂ: ᐳᑐᖃᐅᕐᒪᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑦᑕᕐᓇᖅᑑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑎᓯᔪᐋᓗᐃᑦ ᑕᐃᒪ ᐊᓯᖏᓐᓂᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑕᐅᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ. ᐅᑯᐊᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᓯᒃᑭᓲᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᐱᓲᑦ ᖃᖓᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ, ᐱᑦᑎᐊᓕᔭᕆᐊᖃᓲᑦ ᐊᔪᖏᑦᑎᐊᖅᑑᒐᓗᐊᑦ ᓴᓇᔨ. ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓚᖓ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᔭᕐᓂᓐᖏᑑᖕᒪᑦ ᐋᓯᕙᖕᒧᑦ. ᓴᐅᓂᑐᐃᓐᓇᑦ ᑭᓱᕈᖅᑎᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓂᖓ ᒪᓕᒡᖢᒍ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᓐᖏᓐᓂᖏᑦ ᐱᐅᓯᑎᓪᖢᒋᑦ, ᓴᓇᑦᑎᐊᖅᓯᒪᒻᒪᕆᐋᓗᒡᖢᒋᑦ ᑭᓱᖑᐊᖕᖑᖢᑎᒃ ᒪᓕᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᑕᑯᔪᒪᔭᒥᓂᒃ. ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓂᖅᐹᕆᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ “ᖃᐃᖃᒃᓴᓕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᐋᕿᒃᓱᓕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᒥᑭᔫᑎᑦ” ᐊᒻᒪᓗ “ᐊᑐᕈᓐᓇᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑎᓕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᐅᕈᑎᒋᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᑭᓱᓕᐅᕈᑎᒋᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ,”3 ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᒥᑭᓚ. ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎ ᐊᑐᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᓴᐅᓃᑦ, ᑭᒍᑎᑦ ᑑᒑᑦ, ᓇᒡᔪᐃᑦ, ᓴᐅᓃᑦ, ᐃᕙᓗᑦ, ᐃᕙᓗᓕᐊᕆᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓄᑭᖕᓂᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕿᔪᒃ ᐃᔨᖑᐊᒃᓴᖏᓐᓄᑦ, ᑭᒍᑎᒃᓴᖏᓐᓄᑦ, ᑑᒑᒃᓴᖏᓐᓄᑦ, ᑭᓱᖑᐊᖏᑦ ᐊᑕᔪᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᒥᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑭᓱᑐᐃᓐᓇᑦ ᑎᒍᒥᐊᒐᒃᓴᐅᔪᑦ, ᐅᑯᐊᓗ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐱᑦᑎᐊᓕᔭᕆᐊᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᑦᑎᐊᖅᓯᒪᒐᒥᒃ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᓂᖏᑦ. ᐱᔭᕇᖅᑕᐃᓐᓇᑦᑎᐊᕆᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᓂ ᐃᒡᓯᓇᐃᓯᒪᓇᓂ ᐱᔭᕇᖅᐸᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᑦᑎᐊᖅᐸᑕ ᐋᕿᑦᑎᐊᖅᐸᑕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕿᓕᖅᓴᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕋᒥᒋᑦ. ᐱᓕᕆᔾᔪᓯᐊ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᓂᖓ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᔭᐅᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᓯᒥᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᖃᑎᒥᓂᒃ ᐱᐅᒋᔭᐅᓐᖏᓇᖏᑦᑑᒐᓗᐊᑦ - ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓚᖏ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐅᖅᑕᐅᕙᒡᖢᑎᒃ, ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᓈᒻᒪᒋᕙᓚᐅᓐᖏᑕᖓ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ. ᐊᑯᓂᐅᑎᒋᓂᖓ ᓴᓇᔭᖓᑕ ᐱᔭᕇᕋᓱᐊᖅᖢᓂᐅᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑕᓂ ᐊᒃᑐᐃᓯᒪᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓂᐊᕐᓂᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓂ, ᐅᓇᓗ ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᔪᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᖕᒧᑦ ᑭᓯᐊᓂ, ᐅᕙᑦᑎᓄᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᕈᑎᒋᓕᕐᓗᑎᓂᒍᑦ ᐱᓚᐅᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ. ᐋᓯᕚᖕᒧᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᕐᓂᒃ ᐃᓗᒥᖔᖅᑐᖅ, ᓴᓇᒃᑲᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᔪᖏᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᓂ, ᐱᑦᑎᐊᓕᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᐱᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓴᓇᔪᓐᓇᖅᑕᓂ ᐃᓚᒋᓚᖑᖅᑕᖓ ᑕᖃᓇᕋᓗᐊᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᓂᖓ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᔭᓂ ᑭᓱᕈᖅᑎᓐᓂᐊᕋᒥᐅᒃ. ᐃᓅᔪᑎᑐᑦ, ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐃᓄᖑᐊᑦ, ᓇᐸᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑮᓇᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᓴᓇᖃᑦᑕᕐᓂᖅᐸᐅᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᐋᓯᐅᒃ ᐊᒥᓱᓂ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂ. ᑕᒪᕐᒥᐸᓗᑦ ᓇᖏᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᐱᖃᑎᖃᕋᔪᒐᑎᒃ ᐃᓄᖕᖑᐊᓂᒃ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓂᕐᔪᑎᖑᐊᓂᒃ - ᑭᓱᖑᐊᑦ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᓇᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓄᖕᒥᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᓯᒪᔪᑦ. ᐱᒋᐊᓂᖓᓂᑦ, ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᓐᖏᑑᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᓴᕿᔮᓛᖑᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦ ᑕᑯᔭᒃᓴᐅᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂ. ᒪᓕᒡᖢᒍ ᔪᐊᔨ ᓱᕕᓐᑕᓐ [George Swinton], ᐅᓇ 1972 ᐅᖃᓕᒫᒐᓕᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᐃᓄᖕᓂᑦ ᐃᓕᓐᓂᐊᕈᑎᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕆᕙᒃᑕᖓ, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᖏᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐋᕿᒃᓯᒪᒐᔪᖕᒪᑕ ᑐᑭᓕᐅᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐅᖃᖅᓯᒪᔪᑎᑐᑦ ᐱᐅᓯᕐᒥᖕᓂᒃ, ᓴᕿᑦᑎᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᐅᖅᐸᒃᑕᕐᒥᖕᓂᒃ ᖃᐅᑕᒫᑦ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒥᖕᓂᒃ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓇᖕᒥᓂ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖅᑐᐊᒥᖕᓂᒃ.4 “ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓂᓪᓕᐅᑎᒋᔪᓐᓇᕐᓂᖓ ᐅᖓᑖᓄᑦ ᑐᑭᓕᐅᕆᓂᓂ ᐊᔪᖏᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓕᓴᕐᓇᖅᓯᑎᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ. ᑮᓇᖏᑦ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᔭᒥᖕᓂᒃ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᑦᓯᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᓂᖕᖓᐅᒪᓂᖅ, ᑲᑉᐱᐊᓱᖕᓂᖅ, ᖁᒡᓴᓪᓚᒍᑎᑦ, ᓇᓗᓕᐅᖃᔪᑦ, ᓂᖕᖓᒃᓴᐃᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑲᒪᔪᑦ. ᐃᔨᖏᑦ ᐊᖕᒪᓗᖅᑎᐋᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᓴᐅᓂᐅᓂᖓ ᓇᓗᓇᕋᓂ, ᓴᓐᓂᖓᒐᓗᐊᕈᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᔾᔨᒋᓐᖏᑦᑎᐊᕋᓗᐊᕈᓂᐅᒃ, ᓯᓕᒃᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓄᓇᒥᐅᑕᓪᓚᕆᐅᔪᑦ.

ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ (1940–1974 ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᖅ) — LEFT

ᑭᓱᖑᐊᖅ c. 1973 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᑑᒑᖅ, ᓇᒡᔪᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅ 29.2 × 68.5 × 15.3 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ ᑲᓇᑕᐅᑉ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖓ ᑲᓇᑕᒥ

Bone

BELOW

ᖃᖓᑕᔪᖅ ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ c. 1972 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᓇᒡᔪᒃ, ᑑᒑᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᑭᒍᑖ 23.5 × 58 × 14.5 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ ᑐᓛᓐᑐ ᑐᒥᓂᐊᓐ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᒃᑯᕕᒃ ᓄᐊᓯᒪᔭᖏᓐᓂᑦ

29

Challenging Convention

ᓱᖅᓗᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᓂᖏᑦ ᒪᑐᐃᖓᔪᑦ, ᐃᖅᐸᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ, ᐅᖃᖏᑦ ᓴᕿᔮᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑭᒍᑎᒐᓴᖏᑦ ᓴᓂᓕᕇᓕᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᓴᐅᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᑑᒑᕐᒧᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓕᐅᖃᖅᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓲᕐᓗ ᐊᑦᑕᑕᖅᑎᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓇᓗᓇᐃᖅᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᑦ ᐃᓂᖁᓇᕋᑎᒃ, ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᓪᓚᑖᖑᔮᕋᑎᒃ, ᐊᔾᔨᐅᒐᑎᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᑎᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᓪᓚᐅᑲᔭᖅᓯᒪᖑᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᑭᓱᖑᐊᑦ ᐃᖃᐃᑎᒋᓇᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓱᒫᓘᑎᖃᕈᓐᓇᕐᓂᑦᑎᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᕆᓐᖏᑕᑦᑎᓂᖔᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᖁᐃᓕᖅᑕᓇᖅᑐᓂᒃ. ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᐃᑦᑕᕐᓂᑕᓕᕆᔨᐅᑉ ᐃᖕᖑ ᕼᐃᓱ [Ingo Hessel] ᑕᑯᓯᒪᔭᒥᓂᒃ, ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᕈᓯᖓ ᓈᒻᒪᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᖅ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᔪᓂᑦ ᓴᕿᔮᕐᑎᑦᑎᔾᔪᑕᐅᕙᒃᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᖕᖓᑯᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᕐᒥᑦ, “ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᐊᔾᔨᒌᓐᖏᑑᑕᐅᖕᒥᖕᒪᑕ ᐋᕿᒃᓯᒪᓂᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐳᑐᖃᐅᖅᖢᑎᒃ, ᓯᓚᒦᑯᑖᖕᓂᑯᑦ ᖃᑯᖅᓯᔪᑦ, ᓈᒻᒪᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᑭᓱᓕᐊᕆᓗᒋᑦ ᓴᕿᑎᓐᓂᐊᕐᓗᒋᑦ ᐱᑕᖃᕐᓂᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᑕ ᐊᓯᐊᓃᑦᑐᓂᑦ ᐋᕿᐅᑎᒋᔭᐅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ.”5 ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐅᖃᓪᓚᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑲᖑᒋᖏᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᑕᕐᓂᐅᑉ ᐃᑲᔪᖅᑎᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓯᖏᑦ ᐅᓂᒃᑳᖏᑦ ᑕᒪᑐᒧᖓ ᐊᖓᒃᑯᓕᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ. ᐅᖃᐅᑎᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᒥᑭᓚ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔭᒥᓂᒃ ᐊᖕᖓᑯᒥᒃ ᖃᓂᒋᔭᖓᓂ ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᖅ ᐅᓇᓗ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᖕᖏᔪᐋᓗᖕᒥᒃ ᐃᔨᖃᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᖃᑖ ᒥᑭᔫᑯᓘᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᔨᖓ, ᐅᖃᐅᓯᕆᔾᔪᓯᕆᓪᓗᒍ ᐊᔾᔨᐅᓐᖏᑑᔾᔪᓯᖏᑦ ᐃᓄᖑᐊᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᓂ. ᐅᖃᖃᑎᒋᔭᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᑖᑉᓱᒪᖓ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖕᒥ ᑲᒪᔨᐅᔪᖅ ᑖᓖᓐ ᑲᐅᕗᑦ ᒍᐃᑦ [Darlene Coward Wight] ᑕᐃᑲᖓᑦ ᕕᓂᐲᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ, ᐋᓯᔭᐅᑉ ᓇᔭᖓ, ᐃᑏᒧᖓ ᓂᕕᐊᑦᓯᐊᖅ, ᑐᓂᓯᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᖃᓄᐃᖓᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᓂᕕᓂᖓᓂ ᑕᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓱᒪᔾᔪᓯᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᔭᖏᑦ ᓴᕿᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᑦ:

Ashevak liked to concentrate on a certain mode or effect, working through a subject repeatedly before moving on to a new idea.

—

Spirit 1972 Bone and stone 38.1 × 20.3 × 10.2 cm WINNIPEG ART GALLERY

“ᖃᓪᓗᓈᖃᓚᐅᖅᑎᓐᓇᒍ, ᐊᒥᓲᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᖕᖓᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᕐᓃᑦ. ᐊᑖᑕᕗᑦ ᐊᒥᓱᐃᖅᖢᓂ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖃᖃᑦᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐊᖓᒃᑯᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᑕᖃᓐᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᒥᑭᑎᓪᓗᑕ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔪᖓ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᑲᑉᐱᐊᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ. ᐱᕈᕋᒥ, ᐃᒡᓚᐅᑎᒋᕙᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᓂᖓ ᑲᑉᐱᐊᓱᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᕐᓂᕋᖅᖢᓂ. ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖃᑦᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᑕᕐᓂᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᖓᒃᑯᐃᑦ ᑕᐃᒃᑯᐊ ᑲᑉᐱᐊᒋᕙᓚᐅᖅᑕᓂ.”6

— ᑕᕐᓂᖅ 1972 ᓴᐅᓂᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅ 38.1 × 20.3 × 10.2 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ

ᕕᓂᐲᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ

ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐊᐅᓪᓗᑎᕙᓚᐅᖅᑕᓂ ᖃᓄᐃᓕᖓᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᓪᓗᒍ, ᓴᓇᔭᓂ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᑕᐃᓐᓇᓕᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᓯᐊᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᑲᓂᓕᓚᐅᓐᖏᓂᕐᒥᓂ ᓄᑖᒥᒃ ᐃᓱᒪᑖᕆᔭᒥᓂᒃ. ᓴᓇᖃᑦᑕᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᑐᓂ ᓱᕐᕌᕙᓪᓕᐊᓪᓗᒋᑦ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓯᖏᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᑮᓇᓕ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓄᖕᖑᐊᑦ, ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᕿᓚᐅᔾᔭᖑᐊᖅᑐᑦ, “ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᓅᓕᒑᖁᔨᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᕿᒥᕐᕈᐊᖅᖢᒋᑦ”; ᐃᕙᔪᑦ ᑎᖕᒥᐊᑦ “ᓴᐳᒻᒥᔪᑦ ᐱᐅᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖏᑦ ᒪᓐᓂᖑᐊᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖅᓯᓵᖅᑐᖅ ᐸᒡᕕᔭᐅᒐᒥ ᐲᖅᑕᐅᒐᒥ ᐊᕕᖕᖓᖅ ᑎᓯᒥᓂᑦ ᖃᓂᒋᔭᖓᓂ ᒪᓐᓃᑦ.”;7 ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᓇᓄᖑᐊᓕᐅᐸᒃᑭᓪᓗᓂ; ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑕᖏᑦ ᐅᑯᐊ ᐋᕿᒃᓱᑲᓐᓂᒐᒃᓴᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᖕᖑᐊᕆᔭᒃᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᒪᓕᒡᖢᒍ ᒥᑯᓚ, ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐱᐅᒃᓴᓚᐅᕐᒪᑦ ᑭᓱᒥᐊᑯᓘᔭᕐᓂᒃ, ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᒃᓴᖅᖢᓂ ᓴᓇᔪᓐᓇᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᖑᐊᖏᓐᓂᖅᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᐅᑯᐊ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒍᑕᐅᓗᑎᑐᐊᖅ, “ᑕᐃᒫᒃ ᓲᕐᓗ ᑭᓱᒥᒃ ᑕᑯᓗᑎᒃ ᐱᐅᒋᔭᕐᓂᒃ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ ᓂᐅᕕᕐᑎᒃᑯᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᐃᒍᓱᑦᑎᐊᓕᕐᓗᑎᑦ,”8 ᒥᑯᓚ ᑎᑎᕋᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ. ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐊᒥᒐᖅᓯᓚᐅᓐᖏᓇᒥ ᓴᓇᕐᕈᑎᒥᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᔭᒃᓴᒥᓂᒃ ᐋᕿᒃᓯᔪᓐᓇᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᓄᒃᑕᕈᓐᓇᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐱᔭᕐᓂᖅᑐᑯᓘᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᑮᖑᐊᓕᐊᖏᑦ ᓂᕆᑎᑕᒃᓴᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᑭᖑᑎᖃᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᐲᓲᓂᒃ ᐃᕙᓗᒧᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ ᑖᒪᓐᓇ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᑭᓱᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᔪᓐᓇᖅᑐᑦ (ᐅᓪᓗᖃᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ), ᑕᐃᑲᓂ ᓂᐊᖁᖓ, ᑎᒥᖓ, ᑕᓕᖏᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓂᐅᖏᑦ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᖃᑦᑕᕈᓐᓇᖅᑐᑦ. ᑖᒃᑯᐊᑦᓴᐃᓐᓇᐅᖃᑦᑕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᑐᑭᖏᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓄᑦ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᑦ, ᐱᓕᕆᖃᑕᐅᔪᒪᓕᕐᑎᑦᑎᕙᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ, ᓲᕐᓗ, ᑕᒪᐅᓐᓇ ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᐅᔪᑐᖃᐅᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᔪᕈᓐᓃᑦᑎᐊᕐᓗᒋᑦ ᐊᔪᕐᓇᖏᓐᓂᓕᒫᖓᒍᑦ ᓴᓇᖑᐊᖅᑕᓂ. ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᐊᑕᓂᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᓕᐅᕆᓯᒪᔭᑐᖃᒥᓄᑦ ᐋᕿᒃᐸᑕ, ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᐋᕿᒃᓱᑦᑎᐊᑲᓐᓂᓕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᐊᕐᔪᒡᖢᒋᑦ ᐋᕿᑦᑎᐊᕈᑎᓂᐊᕐᒪᑕ ᓴᓇᔭᒥᓄᑦ - ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᒥᑭᔪᒥᒃ, ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᖕᖏᔪᒥᒃ, ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᓴᓇᔭᓯ ᐃᓚᒌᓕᑦᑎᐊᕐᒪᑕ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒧᑦ. ᒪᑯᓚ ᑕᑯᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐅᑯᐊ “ᐊᑐᓂ ᓱᕐᕌᓂᖏ ᓲᕐᓗ…ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᓴᓇᑦᑎᐊᑲᓐᓂᕈᒥᓇᖅᑐᑦ - ᑕᐃᒪᓐᓇᐅᒐᔪᒃᑐᖅ 6 ᑎᑭᓪᖢᒍ 8 ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑕᖏᑦ, ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᒌᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᐃᓱᒪᒋᔭᒥᒍᑦ, ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᒌᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᐊᑐᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᔭᕇᓕᕌᖓᒥᒍᑦ ᓴᖕᖏᒃᑎᖅᓴᐅᕙᒡᕗᑎᒃ.”9 ᑐᑭᓯᓇᖅᓯᑎᑦᑎᐊᕋᓱᒡᓗᒋᑦ ᐅᓇ ᐱᒋᐊᕈᑖ ᐊᒥᓲᔪᑦ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐊᕙᑖᓂ 1972 ᐊᒻᒪᓗ 1973, ᓴᕿᔮᕐᑎᑦᑎᔪᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓴᒃᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑕᓕᖓ. ᐊᔾᔨᒌᓐᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᐃᓚᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᑐᒑᑦ, ᓇᒡᔪᐃᑦ, ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᓕᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖏᑦ, ᐊᒥᓱᑦ ᓴᕿᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᑕᐃᓵᑦᓴᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᓴᓇᔾᔪᓯᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᑲᓐᓂᖅᐸᒡᖢᒋᑦ ᐱᐅᓴᐅᑎᓕᑲᓐᓂᖅᖢᒋᑦ. ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᓇᓕᒧᒌᓯᐊᑲᓴᐃᑦ, ᐃᓚᖏᑦ ᑲᒥᒃᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᑯᑭᖃᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᐃᓯᒐᖏᑦ, ᐊᓯᖏᑦ

Ashevak spoke openly of spirit helpers and other stories related to shamanism. He told McGrath about a known shaman near Talurjuaq who had one large eye and one small eye, which was the basis for this unusual feature in his work. In interviews with curator Darlene Coward Wight of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Ashevak’s sister, Eeteemunga Niviaqsiaq, provided rich insight into his thinking and imagination: “Before the Qabloona [non-Inuit] came, there were a lot of angakkuqs (shamans) and spirits. Our father talked a lot about angakkuqs and ghosts when we were small, and I know Ashevak was afraid of them. After he grew up, he laughed at what he used to be afraid of. He would carve those spirits and angakkuqs that he was afraid of.” 6 Ashevak liked to concentrate on a certain mode or effect, working through a subject repeatedly before moving on to a new idea. He worked in phases, and in addition to faces and figures, subjects included drum dancers, “so rhythmically sensitive it is almost possible to watch the carvings move”; nesting birds, “protecting beautiful whalebone eggs and screaming in rage at the intrusion of a removable lemming in a hole near the nest”; 7 the occasional bear; and carvings that could be manipulated and played with. According to McGrath, Ashevak loved gadgets, and these inspired his lighter side. These pieces were made strictly for fun, “like when you see something you really like at the Bay store and you get really happy about it,” 8 McGrath writes. Ashevak had enough command of his tools and materials to handle moving parts with ease, creating faces you could feed, teeth out of sinew that you could pull and works such as Eskimo Man Can Do Anything (date unknown) in which the head, body, arms and legs are all interchangeable.

Recurring themes run throughout Ashevak’s work, motivated it seems by his innate drive toward mastering the possibilities of his medium. Once the elements of the original idea were established,

Bone

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Challenging Convention

ABOVE Ashevak would bring in fine-tuned changes that altered the tone of Spirit Figure the work—sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically, but always c. 1972 retaining the essential unity of the piece. McGrath observes that “each Whalebone, ivory, antler phase seemed . . . to be thoroughly worked through—usually six to and stone 32.7 × 65.5 × 10.5 cm eight carvings, all variations on a particular idea, all of them different THE SAMUEL AND ESTHER from one another and the latter ones usually being the strongest.” 9 SARICK COLLECTION, ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO Illustrating this approach are several works created between 1972 and 1973, featuring a single outstretched arm. Variously composed RIGHT of elements made from ivory, antler, stone and whalebone, the series Bird Guarding Nest demonstrates Ashevak’s propensity to work and rework certain of Eggs 1972 motifs. All are similarly sized, some sporting booties or clawed feet, Whalebone others with incised or sculpted mitted hands. As always, expressive 45.1 × 27.9 × 27.9 cm faces with contorted elements and flared nostrils are present. Each COURTESY WADDINGTON’S asymmetrical work balances gingerly on one or more posts. Viewed OPPOSITE together, they offer a striking portrait of the artist at work, or rather Shaman working through a concept as well as a composition.

1972 One word stands out in all of the objective commentary on Whalebone, antler Ashevak’s work: expressive. The word is also used to describe the and stone 59.5 × 26 × 26 cm man himself. He had an exuberant personality and was open with WINNIPEG ART GALLERY his emotions. Both his life and his art were characterized by boldness PHOTO ERNEST MAYER and risk-taking. McGrath recalls Ashevak “hopping up and down like a jumping jack at good news and joyfully chasing airplanes summer and winter with his Ski-Do . . . driving the Ski-Doo sitting NOTES backwards or standing on the seat or upside down just for the enter- 1 Robin McNeill, “The Spirit World of Karoo Ashevak,” North 22, no. 6 (1975): 3. tainment of it.” 10 According to McGrath, he could be aggressive 2 Judy McGrath, Karoo Ashevak 1940–1974: Sculpture (Winnipeg: The Upstairs and antagonistic but was most often loving, loyal and generous.

Gallery, 1977), unpaginated. McGrath, a sculptural weaver, came to Talurjuaq in 1971 with her husband, John, who was the GNWT Area Industrial Development Carving seemed to focus his enormous energy and express the full Officer. The McGraths were particularly interested in the work of Karoo Ashevak range of his personality; he poured his whole being into his work. and developed a close personal relationship with him and his family. Much of our His sister recalls, insight into the nature of the man and the inspiration behind his work comes

from the McGraths’ published accounts and interviews.

Ibid.

4 McNeill, “The Spirit World of Karoo Ashevak,” 5.

5 Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2006), 203.

6 Darlene Coward Wight, Art & Expression of the Netsilik (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2000), 66.

7 McGrath, Karoo Ashevak 1940–1974, unpaginated.

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.

11 Wight, Art & Expression of the Netsilik, 64.

Karoo Ashevak’s art inspired an entire generation of artists working in the Kitikmeot Region and is highly prized—and priced— 12 Writing in 1990, Marie Routledge and Ingo Hessel noted that “probably the most important factor in the establishment of [the sculptural style in Talurjuaq] was the in the Inuit art market today.12 It is clear from the personal accounts work of one remarkable talent, Karoo Ashevak. Nowhere else has the carving of a of those close to him that the man is missed as much as his work. In all whole community been so dominated by the work of a single artist.” Marie of those accounts, a feeling of joy comes through. Ashevak’s zest for Routledge and Ingo Hessel, “Regional Diversity in Contemporary Inuit Sculpture,” life and passion for his work gave Inuit art one of its brightest stars.

Inuit Art Quarterly 5, no. 3 (Summer 1990): 21.

“He was always so full of joy as he worked away on a new piece. He was always so proud of himself. He would pause and study a piece that he was working on, as if he was thinking or meditating. Sometimes he would put it to the side for a while and glance at it from a distance. Then a day or two later he would be inspired to finish it. When he finished he’d be pouring with sweat and looking joyful and exuberant!” 11

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OPPOSITE (ABOVE)

ᑕᕐᓂᖅ ᑭᓱᖑᐊᖅ c. 1972 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᑑᒑᖅ, ᓇᒡᔪᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅ 32.7 × 65.5 × 10.5 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ ᐅᑯᐊ ᓴᒥᐅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᔅᑐ ᐊᕆᒃ ᓄᐊᓯᒪᔭᖓ, ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ ᐋᓐᑎᐅᕆᐅ

BELOW

ᑭᐱᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐳᐊᓗᓯᒪᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ, ᐃᒃᐱᖕᓂᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑮᓇᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐃᖁᖓᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᐃᓚᖃᖅᑐᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓱᕐᓗᖏᑦ ᑕᒡᕙᐅᓪᓗᑎᒃ. ᐊᑐᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᒋᓐᖏᑦᑎᐊᖅᑕᖏᑦᐊᑕᔪᒥᓇᓐᖏᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᓴᓇᒐᒥᒋᑦ ᓇᓕᕿᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᑎᒃ ᐊᓯᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᐅᓂᖏᑦᑐᓂᒃ ᓇᑉᐸᕐᕕᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ. ᑕᑯᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᑲᑎᖓᓪᓗᑎᒃ, ᑭᓱᖑᐊᕈᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᓂᒋᑦ ᓴᓇᑦᑎᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᒻᒪᕆᐋᓘᓪᓗᑎᒃ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᓂᖓ, ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᐃᒫᖃᐃ ᐅᖃᕈᒪ ᓴᓇᕙᓪᓕᐊᖓᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᑦ ᑕᒪᐅᓐᓇ ᑕᖏᖅᑖᖅᖢᓂ ᑖᓐᓇ. ᐅᖃᕈᒃᑯ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᑐᕐᓗᒍ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓄᑦ ᑐᑭᓕᐅᕈᑎᒋᕙᓪᓕᐊᔭᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐅᖃᐅᓯᒃᓴᓕᐅᖅᑎᑕᐅᓐᓂᕈᒪ ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᓐᓄᑦ: ᐃᒃᐱᖕᓂᖃᑦᓯᐊᖅᑐᑦ. ᐅᖃᖅᑕᕋᑦᑕᐅᖅ ᐅᓇ ᐱᓯᒪᖕᒥᔪᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᖓᓄᑦ. ᐅᓇ ᐆᒻᒪᕆᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᓅᓯᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒪᑐᐃᖓᑦᓯᐊᖅᖢᓂ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᔭᒥᓂᒃ ᓂᓪᓕᐅᑎᖃᓲᖅ. ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒥᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᖕᖓᐊᖅᑕᒥᒍᑦ ᓴᐱᕆᔭᖃᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᓗᕆᐊᒋᔭᖃᕋᓂ. ᒥᑯᓚ ᐃᖃᐅᒪᔪᖅ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ “ᑭᒡᒋᖅᑕᐅᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᐅᑲᓕᖅᑎᑐᑦ ᑐᓴᕋᓂ ᑐᓴᕈᒥᓇᖅᑐᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᖁᕕᐊᒋᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᒪᓕᖃᑦᑕᖅᖢᒋᑦ ᖃᖓᑕᓲᑦ ᐊᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᑭᐅᒃᑯᑦ ᖃᒧᑕᐅᔭᒃᑯᑦ… ᐊᖁᑦᑐᖅ ᖃᒧᑕᐅᔭᒥᒃ ᑭᒡᓯᕚᓪᓗᓂ ᑐᓄᖓᓪᓗᓂ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᓇᖕᖏᕐᓗᓂ ᐃᒡᓯᕙᐅᑕᖓᓂ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᑯᔾᔭᖓᓪᓗᓂ ᐃᒡᓚᖅᑎᑦᑎᓇᓱᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ.”10 ᐅᖃᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᒥᑯᓚ, ᓱᑰᖅᐸᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᑦᑎᐊᓐᖏᓚᐅᓲᖑᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑭᓯᐊᓂᓕ ᓇᒡᓕᒍᓱᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᓂ, ᐊᑐᖅᓯᑦᑎᐊᖅᖢᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᑲᔪᑦᑎᐊᓲᖑᓪᓗᓂ. ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᖢᓂ ᐊᐅᓪᓗᑎᕙᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᐃᓗᒥᓂᑦ ᐃᒃᐱᒋᔭᒥᓂᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓂᓪᓕᐅᑎᒋᓪᓗᒋᑦ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒥᓂ ᐱᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ; ᐃᓚᓕᐅᑎᓚᐅᖅᑕᖓ ᐃᒻᒥᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᓯᕐᒥᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᔭᒥᓄᑦ. ᓇᔭᖓ ᐃᖃᐅᒪᔪᖅ,

ᐊᖓᒃᑯᖅ 1972 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ, ᓇᒡᔪᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐅᒃᑯᓯᒃᓴᖅ 59.5 × 26 × 26 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ ᕕᓂᐲᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ ᐊᔾᔨᓕᐊᖓ ᐆᓂᔅ ᒫᔪ

OPPOSITE (BELOW)

ᑎᖕᒥᐊᖅ ᓂᕕᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐃᕙᔭᒥᓂᒃ ᒪᓐᓂᖕᓂᒃ 1972 ᐊᕐᕕᐅᑉ ᓴᐅᓂᖓ 45.1 × 27.9 × 27.9 ᓯᓐᑕᒦᑕᔅ ᑐᓂᓯᔪᖅ ᒍᐊᑎᖕᑕᓐᔅ

“ᖁᕕᐊᓱᐃᓐᓇᐅᔭᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᓴᓇᐅᔭᖅᖢᓂ ᓄᑖᓂᒃ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑕᒥᓂᒃ. ᐃᒻᒥᓂᒃ ᐅᐱᒋᑦᓯᐊᖅᐸᒡᖢᓂ. ᓄᖃᓚᐅᖅᐸᒡᖢᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓕᑦᑎᐊᕋᓱᓕᖅᐸᒡᖢᓂ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᒐᖅ ᓴᓇᔭᓂ, ᓲᕐᓗ ᐃᓱᒪᓪᓗᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᒻᒥᓂᒃ ᐋᕿᒃᓱᖅᖢᓂ. ᐃᓛᓐᓂᒃᑯᑦ ᐃᓕᕙᒃᑕᖓ ᓴᓂᒥᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᕿᕕᐊᖅᐸᒡᖢᒍ ᐅᖓᓯᒋᓪᓗᒍ. ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᐅᓪᓗᖅ ᐅᒡᕙᓘᓐᓃᑦ ᒪᕐᕉᒃ ᐅᓪᓗᑦ ᐱᔭᕇᕐᓂᐊᕋᒥᐅᒃ. ᐱᔭᕇᕈᓂᐅᒃ ᖁᕕᓯᓪᓗᓂ ᓱᑲᓕᖅᖢᒍ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᑕᑯᓪᓗᒍ ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒃᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᐃᒍᓱᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᖅ!”11 ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᐱᔪᒪᔭᐅᓯᒪᓕᖅᑐᑦ ᑕᒪᕐᒥᒃ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᓐᓂ ᕿᑎᕐᒥᐅᓂ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐱᐅᒋᔭᐅᓂᖅᐸᐅᔪ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᑭᑐᓂᖅᓴᐅᔪᑦ - ᐃᓗᐊᓂ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑐᓕᕆᓂᕐᒧᑦ ᑮᓇᐅᔭᓕᐅᕈᑖᓂ ᐅᓪᓗᒥᐅᓕᖅᑐᖅ.12 ᑐᑭᓯᓇᑦᑎᐊᖅᑐᖅ ᐅᑯᐊ ᖃᓂᒋᔭᖏᑦ ᐃᓚᖏᒃ ᑖᑉᓱᒧᖓ ᐊᖑᑎᒧᑦ ᑭᖑᓂᖃᕈᓱᒃᑐᑦ ᑕᐃᒫᒃᑕᐅᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖃᑦᑕᓚᐅᖅᑕᖏᓐᓂᒃ. ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦ ᑕᒪᒃᑯᐊᓕᒫᓄᑦ, ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒃᐸᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᑖᒃᑯᑎᒍᑦ. ᐋᓯᕙᐅᑉ ᐃᓅᓯᒥᒍᑦ ᐊᔪᖏᑦᑎᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᖅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᓕᐊᓇᐃᒋᓪᓗᒍ ᓴᓇᓪᓗᓂ ᑕᐃᒪᓗ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᒐᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᖕᖏᓛᒥᒃ ᑕᑯᔭᐅᑎᑦᑎᓯᒪᔪᖅ. ᖃᐅᔨᒪᔾᔪᑎᑦ 1 ᐅᓚᐱᓐ ᒥᒃᓂᐅ [Robin McNeill], “ᑕᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᖓ ᑲᕉ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ,” ᓄᐊᑦ 22, ᓈᓴᐅᑖ 6 (1975): 3.

2 ᔫᑎ ᒥᑯᓚ [Judy McGrath], ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ 1940–1974: ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎ (ᕖᓂᐲᒃ: ᖁᓪᓕᖓᓂ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ, 1977), ᑐᑭᓕᐅᖅᓯᒪᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ. ᒥᑯᓚ, ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᖢᓂ ᐱᕐᕋᐃᓲᖅ, ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᕐᒧᐊᖅᑐᖅ 1971-ᒥ ᐅᐃᖓᓗ, ᔮᓐ, ᐅᓇ ᓄᓇᑦᓯᐊᖅ ᒐᕙᒪᒃᑯᑦ ᓄᓇᒥ ᑲᒻᐸᓂᐅᔪᓄᑦ ᐱᕙᓪᓕᐊᔪᓕᕆᔨ. ᒥᑯᓚᒃᑯᑦ ᐱᐅᒃᓴᓗᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᓴᓇᔭᖏᓐᓂᒃ ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᑲᕙᒃ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓚᒌᑦᓯᐊᓚᐅᖅᑐᑦ ᑖᒃᑯᓄᖓ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᓚᖏᓐᓄᑦ. ᐅᓂᒃᑳᕆᔭᕗᑦ ᑭᓇᐅᓚᐅᕐᓂᖓ ᐊᖑᑎ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᓇᖃᑦᑕᕈᒪᓕᖅᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᑖᒃᑯᓇᖔᑦ ᒥᑯᓚ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᒐᓕᐊᕆᖃᑦᑕᖅᑕᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐊᐱᖅᓱᖅᑕᐅᑦᑕᖅᖢᓂ.

3 ᖁᓛᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᖓ.

4 ᐅᓚᐱᓐ ᒥᒃᓂᐅ [Robin McNeill], “ᑕᕐᓂᓕᕆᓂᖓ ᑲᕉ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ,” 3.

5 ᐃᖕᖑ ᕼᐃᓱ [Ingo Hessel], ᐅᑭᐅᖅᑕᖅᑐᒥᑦ ᑕᕐᓃᑦ: ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᑕᐃᑲᖓᑦ ᐊᐳᓕᒃ ᓄᐊᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᑕᐃᑲᓂ ᕼᐆᑦ ᑕᑯᔭᒐᖃᕐᕕᖓᓂ (ᕚᓐᑰᕙᖢ ᑕᒡᓚᔅ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᒪᑭᑕᐃᔪ, 2006), 203.

6 ᑕᓖᓐ ᑲᐅᕗᑦ ᒍᐃᑦ [Darlene Coward Wight], ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓕᕆᔨ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᕿᑎᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᓇᑦᓯᓕᒃ (ᕕᓂᐲᒃ: ᕕᓂᐲᒃ ᑕᑯᒐᖃᕐᕕᒃ, 2000), 66.

7 ᒥᑯᓚ, ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᑲᕙᒃ 1940–1974, ᓇᓗᓇᐃᔭᖅᓯᒪᓐᖏᑦᑐᖅ.

8 ᖁᓛᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᖓ.

9 ᖁᓛᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᖓ.

10 ᖁᓛᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᖓ.

11 ᒍᐃᑦ [Wight], ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓕᕆᔨ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᓴᕿᑎᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᓇᑦᓯᓕᒃ, 64.

12 ᑎᑎᕋᖅᑕᑦ 1990, ᒧᓖ ᐅᓘᓕᑦᔾ [Marie Routledge] ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖕᖑ ᕼᐃᓱ [Ingo Hessel] ᐅᖃᖅᓯᒪᔪᑦ ᑕᐃᒪᒎᖅ “ᐱᒻᒪᕆᐅᓂᖅᐸᐅᖂᖅᑐᖅ ᓴᕿᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ [ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᕈᓯᖓ ᑕᓗᕐᔪᐊᖅ] ᓴᓇᔭᖏᓐᓄᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᖅ ᐊᔪᖏᓐᓂᖅᐹᖅ, ᑳᕉᒃ ᐋᓯᕙᒃ. ᐊᓯᖏᑦ ᑭᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂ ᓄᓇᓕᖕᓂᑦ ᐅᑯᐊ ᓴᓇᓯᒪᔭᖏᑦ ᓴᕿᔮᕐᓂᖅᐸᐅᔪᑦ ᐊᖕᖏᓛᒍᔪᑦ ᐊᑕᐅᓯᕐᒥᒃ ᓴᓇᔭᐅᓯᒪᔪᒥᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᑎᒥᑦ.” ᒧᓖ ᐅᓘᓕᑦᔾ ᐊᒻᒪᓗ ᐃᖕᖑ ᕼᐃᓱ, “ᐊᕕᒃᑐᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂ ᐊᔾᔨᒌᓐᖏᑦᑐᑦ ᒫᓐᓇᐅᔪᖅ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᕈᓯᖏᑦ ᐃᓄᐃᑦ,” ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᓴᓇᖕᖑᐊᖅᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ ᐅᖃᓕᒫᒐᖅ 5, ᓈᓴᐅᑖ 3 (ᐊᐅᔭᖅ 1990): 21.

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Challenging Convention

Through Water and Ice:

The Story of Greenlandic Tupilat

For centuries the Greenlandic tupilak has captivated the attention of outsiders while evoking the fear and fascination of locals. In this sprawling feature, an anthropologist specializing in this distinctive art form traces the evolution of this complex being, from mythic cultural figure to desired object, while highlighting some of the most noteworthy artists creating these iconic pieces and living and working in Greenland today.

by Sheila Romalis

Ghert Singertat (Tasiilaq) — Assiaq 2009 Reindeer antler and plastic 7.5 × 23 × 8 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

Gedion Qeqe (b. 1952 Tasiilaq) — OPPOSITE (LEFT)

Transformation figure 2013 Reindeer antler 15 × 8 × 5 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

OPPOSITE (RIGHT)

Ajumaq Transformation 2013 Reindeer antler 10 × 5 × 7 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

The world’s largest island, Greenland sits above 60° north. Situated off the northeast coast of Canada, at its closest point Northwest Greenland is a mere 26 kilometres from Canada, across the Robeson Channel, and 740 kilometres from the geographic North Pole. It is on this island that the enthralling figures and spirits known as tupilat find their home.

The interior of this huge island is comprised of a gigantic ice cap that covers more than 1.8 million square kilometres and boasts a depth of over 3 kilometres at its deepest point. Greenland’s weather patterns and the significant melting of this ice cap over the past 35 years are two very disturbing facts Greenlanders must reckon with today. Ice, in its multitudinous forms, is what Greenlanders must contend with for close to 12 months of the year, and it is ice floes that kept Tunumiit (East Greenlanders) hidden from early European explorers and whalers until as late as the latter part of the nineteenth century. Despite the majority of the country being colonized by Denmark in 1723, Tunu (East Greenland) was thought to be uninhabited.

As a result, the region was left to develop independently, with its people’s traditional culture left intact and unbroken for over 3,000 years.

One such traditional practice that continues is the creation of tupilat, legendarily vengeful creatures crafted by Inuit shamans to destroy their enemies. Although the purpose and power of these iconic figures has ebbed over time, not least due to the influence of Danish colonial policies, tupilat continue to capture the attention of Greenlanders and visitors alike. Today these objects, crafted from bone, horn, tusk and stone, remain highly sought after by collectors for their grotesque and exaggerated features.

Although just one among many spirits within traditional Greenlandic Inuit cosmology, the tupilaq was the most feared. Created for the sole purpose of killing a person or persons who had wronged someone, the tupilaq was an agent of recourse against evil in Tunumiit society wherein an individual could go to the angakkok (shaman) or ilisissoq (necromancer) with a claim of wrongdoing against them.

After deliberation, the angakkok would set about constructing a tupilaq being. In addition to organic materials, including human and animal remains, wood and cloth materials from the intended

Inuit Art Quarterly

victim were then required. The composite collection was fashioned into a bundle, after which the angakkok chanted special words in a secluded place near water. It was said that once it began to grow, a tupilaq gained power by sucking the genitals of its maker.1 The creatures were known to be “not ordinary.” Very unlike the spirits that resided in all objects and beings, they were special, evil spirits that had to be conjured for a specific case: to kill a certain individual.

Once the objective was reached, the tupilaq would disappear.

From the arrival of the Danish anthropologist and explorer Gustav Holm in the Ammassalik Fjord, in 1884, the 413 Ammassalimmiut who resided in the area would talk about the tupilaq, but in hushed tones. Despite there being no physical examples of tupilak figures in Greenland at this point in time, the tales and stories told to Holm and others in the community (now called Tasiilaq, but formerly known as Angmagssalik) prove the belief system remained intact, as it had been from at least 1,300 AD. Meanwhile, acculturation and assimilation were active processes in West Greenland and the country’s southern regions and continued to be so for over 230 years. Once the Danes extended their colonial occupation to include the entire population on the east coast and “urged” the acceptance of Lutheran Christianity, Tunumiit began to suppress their traditional beliefs, replacing them with Christian catechism and values. Since it undermined the entire cultural system that had existed prior to Holm’s arrival, Christianity brought about a new symbolic and semantic knowledge set, to which Tunumiit had to adapt. Once baptized, Tunumiit could no longer hold on to their belief in spirits capable of helping or harming them.

It was not that the spirits had disappeared—they were still in the world around Tunumiit—but after accepting Lutheranism, the spirits no longer held power over them.2 Although it took several years for Christianity to be accepted by all, by 1904 most Tunumiit had been baptized.

In 1905 severak tupilak figures were created and shown to the Danish anthropologist William Thalbitzer by the recently converted angakkok Mitsivarniannga.3 Following this first recorded cultural exchange, the production of tupilat accelerated and within three decades had spread to all populated areas of Greenland. However, the largest centre for both output and practicing artists has always been

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Ajumaq “ Ajumaq is a familiar spirit of a very unpleasant type.

Everything that it touches rots and perishes. It has a dog’s head but a human body. Its arms and legs are black, and it has only three fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot.”

three communities in Southeast Greenland: Tasiilaq, Kulusuk (formerly Kap Dan) and Kuummiut (formerly Kungmiut). From the 1930s onwards, the production coming from Kulusuk in particular was prodigious, especially during the years of World War II. This high output could have been due to the close proximity of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line base to Kulusuk, with US Air Force and Army personnel wishing to take home a souvenir from the region.4 Several well-known carvers came from Kulusuk, including Duge, Tobias, Nuka and Anton Utuak, Johan Elio, Egon Poulsen, Knud and Thorvald Mikaelsen and Axel Nuko. From Tasiilaq, Hans and Paulas Kuitse, Asser and Henrik Singertat, Kora and Hoseas Tukula, Henning and Bianco Agtagkat, Farel Nakinge and Thomas Kilime are also very well regarded. The unidentified sperm whale tooth sculpture from 1960s Kulusuk on page 39 is a particularly fine and detailed example of works produced during this post-war period.

Representing the story of the dead angakkok who was upset with children playing on his grave and disturbing his sleep, the skeleton is well executed and thinly carved with a skull sporting an eerily pleased face. As the legend is told, the angakkok rose from his grave to drum dance, using his right scapula as a drum and his left tibia as the drumstick, to chase away the children. After their terrified departure, he was free to return to his grave to rest in peace.

During this same period, the output of tupilak figures in Kangaamiut and Nuuk, in West Greenland, and Qaqortoq (formerly Julianehåb), Southwest Greenland, also flourished. Important sculptors from Kangaamiut include Karl Kreutzmann (1889–1964), Esra Berthelsen (1889–1954), Ole Kreutzmann (1898–1983), Sivert Augustussen (1901–1957), Knud Petrussen (1915–1973) and Aron Berthelsen (1933–2009). From Nuuk, members of the Kristoffersen family, of which I would mention Karl and Kristian, are most notable. From Qaqortoq, Aron Kleist (1923–1989) and his daughter Cecilie Kleist (1948–1987) were especially talented. Also remarkable were Otto Thomassen (1895–1971) from Upernavik, West Greenland, and Matthias Lorentzen from Paamiut, West Greenland.

In its infancy, the tupilak figure was typically a small carving or sculpture made from wood and/or composite materials, such as string, dog fur, sealskin and human body parts, and was said to represent a tupilaq spirit being (as that was what was usually requested).

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(GITZ-JOHANSEN, 1949:14)

Amotortoq “ Most Angakut have an Amotortok as their tartok (personal spirit). It acts during the performances of the Angakok as a kind of oracle, bringing news from far distances and answering questions laid before it. It has long black arms and is dangerous to approach. . . .

It walks with a heavy tread, and roars crying out, ‘Amo.’ ” (HOLM [1887]1912:88)

Aperketeq “ It can resemble a seal for the hind part, it has long arms and can have claw feet. It is the helper of the spirit helper of the Angakuk.”

(RINK, 1975:43)

Erkigdlik “ The Erkigdliks have the form of a man above and that of a dog below. They dwell on the inland ice and are inimical to man.”

(GITZ-JOHANSEN, 1949:30)

Ingnerssuak “ They live under the sea but otherwise engage in the same occupations as men. They are somewhat broader than men, are closely cropped and have no noses.”

(GITZ-JOHANSEN, 1949:30)

Qiviqtoq “ A man who has fled mankind to the interior and returned as a spirit in another state. He understands the speech of animals and has their powers.”

(RINK, 1875:45)

Timertseq “ Timerseks have the form of a man, but are much bigger, being as tall as an umiak (skin boat) is long.

Their soul alone is as large as a man. They live by the chase. . . . They are at enmity with the human race.”

(HOLM, (1887)1912:83) (RASMUSSEN, 1903:339)

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Through Water and Ice

Gedion Qeqe has been carving for over 25 years, classifying him as a master sculptor with amazing creativity.

—

Copenhagen. As tupilat were considered Greenlandic handicrafts, very little promotion or advertising was undertaken.5 Often a sculptor’s works recalled myths, albeit in newly restructured forms or configurations, and many artists had great imaginations. While the RGTD was in operation there grew to be families of wonderful carvers in many areas of Greenland. Today several of the old carving families remain active even as new and notable sculptors enter the genre. This innovative new generation includes artists Titus Nakinge, Johan and Anders Kilime and Anders Kuitse, working in both Kulusuk and Tasiilaq. Most notable, perhaps, are two very innovative sculptors working in East Greenland today: Gedion Qeqe and Ghert Singertat. Both based in Tasiilaq, they are each making their mark as outstanding in this cultural art form. Although their styles are quite unique and their techniques differ decisively, both men base their work in Tunumiit semantic traditions, and both produce creative, original and intricately sculpted tupilat.

Gedion Qeqe has been carving for over 25 years, classifying him as a master sculptor with amazing creativity. Working across media—bone, antler, tooth, stone or wood—Qeqe is skilled at producing works in varying scale, from large to minute. A most versatile and imaginative carver, Qeqe’s vision allows him to produce truly unique tupilak figures. I once asked him where he found his ideas for his figures, and he answered, “I carve what I know in my mind.”6 This imaginative approach is visible in pieces such as his Ajumaq Transformation (2013), whose face is grotesque and ferocious while the body occupies some otherworldly realm. For this work, Qeqe has deftly utilized and enhanced the form of the reindeer antler, crafting a delicate bird beak that extends from where the antler originally branched off. For this sculpture, he has also indicated the scapulas to show that it is a spirit with three fingers, three toes and the long arms characteristic of the spirit known as Ajumaq. Known for carving smooth, polished transformation figures, Qeqe’s signature style is similarly identifiable in his Transformation figure (2013). Here, he uses deep-set nostrils, female breasts and pregnant abdomen, a male penis and a bird beak, all gingerly balanced on a single seal flipper,

As demand steadily increased by visiting anthropologists, ethnographers and priests, the objects evolved into small figures carved from sperm whale tooth, narwhal tooth, seal ear bone, walrus tusk, muskox bone, muskox horn, reindeer antler, construction wood, driftwood, steatite, polar bear tooth and bird bone, with the addition of extras such as plastic coating from electrical wiring for eyes and muskox or dog fur for hair. Since Tunumiit were familiar with all spirit beings and their descriptions from myths, carvers were liberal in their use of spirits’ characteristics in their figures.

Spirit beings were carved, presented and sold to non-Greenlanders as tupilak figures, even if they did not always match the description of a spirit taken from a myth.

The Royal Greenland Trade Department (RGTD), a former Danish state enterprise operating in Greenland between 1774 and 1979, handled the import of material for carvers and purchased the majority of carvings at their shops. In addition to sales to the RGTD, carvers would often sell directly to tourists or visiting dignitaries. In the early years, the Danish government neglected to promote these figures and stockpiled them in warehouses in

Aron Kleist (1923–1989 Qaqortoq) — Untitled n.d.

Sperm whale tooth 10 × 3.2 × 6.5 cm COURTESY NUUK ART MUSEUM PHOTO TOMASZ A. WLACK

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to create this composite figure of transformation. The creature’s exaggerated face features an enticing grin and teasing eyes punctuated with pupils created from the black plastic coating on electrical wiring.

Although primarily self-taught, Qeqe’s precise and intricate work is brilliantly executed and widely collected; in fact several of his tupilat are owned by Queen Margaret of Denmark and her consort, Prince Henrik.

Contrasting Qeqe’s refined, even delicate, approach are the fantastical imagined figures of Ghert Singertat, whose tupilat are characterized by rougher finishing and are often marked by deep grooves to resemble fur or feathering. This heavy striation also allows the artist to sculpt figures that are marked by their fierce grotesqueness.

Known for deviating significantly from any single mythical or spiritual being, Singertat’s composite forms are the result of the artist’s vivid imagination, as evidenced in Tupilaq (2009) (see page 1). Part bird, dog, human and seal, this work rendered in reindeer antler and finished with menacing black eyes (also made from the plastic coating on electrical wire, as in Qeqe’s work) is meant to be read as a lethal and ferocious tupilaq. Both Singertat and Qeqe’s vivid imaginations imbue their work with a lively quality and hint at their vibrant characters, more so than the imaginations of many sculptors who have preceded them. And both are, I believe, at the beginning stages of what will be a prolific output of fascinating and original tupilak sculptures.

Although the artistic tradition of Greenland has always been rooted in the making of beautifully ornamented objects, steeped in narrative, like elsewhere in the circumpolar world, tupilak figures, with their composite forms and nuanced histories, are a fitting representation of the state of contemporary art and life in Greenland today.

Through these small sculptures, Greenlandic sculptors have been and continue to be able to create and share autonomous interpretations of their own cultural heritage with the outside world and, despite the deeply damaging and widespread impacts of Danish colonialism, have deployed these unique figures to relay a complex story of contact, exchange and adaptation. While today’s tupilat differ vastly in purpose and appearance from their early twentieth-century counterparts, they are nonetheless symbolic of an opportunity for Greenlandic artists to redefine their culture and the way others view it.

Gedion Qeqe — ABOVE

Ajumaq representation 2010 Narwhal tusk 4 × 8.5 × 5 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

Unidentified artist (Kulusuk) — CENTRE

Tupilaq representation c. 1950s Seal ear bone and plastic 4 × 10 × 5 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

BELOW

Dead Angakkoq Story c. 1960s Sperm whale tooth 3 × 9.5 × 3 cm PHOTO CHARLES BATEMAN

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NOTES

Bodil Kaalund, The Art of Greenland: Sculpture, Crafts, Painting (English and Danish Edition) (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1984), 89.

2 Once Tunumiit were converted to Christianity, they could produce tupilak figures— concrete, tangible, non-powerful forms—since they no longer believed in the power of a tupilaq being. See Knud Rasmussen, The People of the Polar North: A Record (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Company Limited, 1908), 308.

3 Encyclopedia of the Arctic, 1st ed. (New York: Routledge, 2005), s.v. “tupilak.”

4 Even the US Chaplain Maurer amassed a collection of over 50 tupilak figures and published a small pamphlet about them.

5 Carvers were offered several workshops in the late 1970s by the Royal Greenland Trade Department, but it was not a system of production set up like the Canadian counterpart with instruction and help from artists and mentors. In Canada there was an Igloo Tag attached to every original work of art made by a Canadian Inuk sculptor that stated who made it, where it was made and the material of which it was made. In East Greenland, they tried using a turquoise two-sided blue tag: on one side was the crest of the Royal Greenland Trade Department and a man in a kayak between the words ROYAL and GREENLAND, and on the other, the carver’s name, the date and the place. This tagging practice lasted only about three years and was never consistently used across Greenland. Most of the tags were labelled Kunstforenigen (artist’s workshop) instead of the carver’s name, since it was not important to the RGTD who actually carved each sculpture. As long as the figures could be sold as tupilat, the Royal Greenland Trade Department purchased them.

6 Gedion Qeqe, conversation with author, 1998.

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Through Water and Ice

Crafted from

Bone & Ivory

Crafted from Bone and Ivory: An Interview with Susie Silook — For over 30 years, sculptor Susie Silook has produced a body of thought-provoking and politically charged work, cementing her position as one of Alaska’s leading artists. Silook was raised in the small hamlet of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait, 58 kilometres from the Russian Chukchi Peninsula. Of Siberian Yupik, Iñupiaq and Irish descent, Silook skillfully draws on traditional Indigenous stories and iconography to create her unique and sinuous forms. This past winter, Inuit Art Quarterly Assistant Editor John Geoghegan spoke with Silook, now based in Washington State, to discuss her life, art and politics.

Susie Silook (b. 1960 Gambell) —

JOHN GEOGHEGAN: I understand that you began carving about 32 or 33 years ago. Can you tell me how you got started?

PREVIOUS SPREAD

Family 2004 Whalebone 49.5 × 30.5 × 25.4 cm

SUSIE SILOOK: My father was a carver all his life and a hunter. Both of my parents did the whole subsistence thing—then they created artwork and craft from the skins, bones and ivories they hunted.

So I grew up with it. I am from a culture where, in the not-too-distant past, everything was handmade. In my childhood, in the village, the men would work outside with their anvils and a piece of ivory.

In those days they were using files to shape the ivory the way they wanted. I was in middle school when I tried carving. There was an arts and crafts class where we learned skin sewing from my aunt Penaapak and ivory carving from Bill Soonagrook, both of whom have passed on. My parents encouraged me to continue carving because they thought I had potential.

I had just gotten out of the military in the 1980s when I got really serious about it. My brother-in-law, Archie Henry, taught me some more basics. Then I left Gambell to work in Nome and then moved to Anchorage with my son. In Anchorage I wasn’t sure how I was going to make a living to support us, so I tried carving; my mother had given me bits of ivory and a tool to carve with “just in case.” I was in a relationship with a person buying and selling Native artwork, and he was able to sell my pieces right away. They weren’t that great! It took many years to get my technique to where I wanted it. But it was encouraging to be able to make a small living immediately, so that’s how I kind of accidentally started carving. It allowed me to be a single mother with a flexible schedule. There were so many benefits to being an artist.

DE YOUNG MUSEUM

BELOW

Qavaanguq 2016 Whalebone 106 × 94.9 cm COURTESY HOME & AWAY GALLERY

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I want to preserve our ancient art forms.

In the past, missionaries demonized our—for lack of a better word—religion and our symbols. There are stories about how people burned their ivory or whalebone items that were used in types of spiritual ceremonies and practices.

I wanted to de-demonize them.

—

JG: Growing up in such a creative environment seems to have had a tremendous effect on you. Do you see your artmaking as part of a longer familial and cultural tradition?

SS: Yes. In my family carving was mostly done by men. But there was no discrimination against me doing it, and three women were already doing so on the island—quite well, actually. So it seemed only natural. Now I’m at a point where I’m looking more at the work of my sisters and my mother and wishing I had more of those skills, so maybe I’ll branch out into something in that area eventually.

Once I’m back in Alaska, I’d like to work with sealskin, sinew and gut and try my hand at sewing. I was one of those women who were politely referred to as not owning a thimble, because I didn’t sew.

JG:

What Does It Take for You to See My Heart 2001 Walrus ivory, whalebone, walrus stomach, metal, wood, glass beads, walrus bone and seal whiskers 45.5 × 15.5 × 13.5 cm

Do you travel home often?

SS: It’s so expensive to go to St. Lawrence Island. I go back as much as I can. We hope to move to Alaska. Right now I’m in Puyallup, Washington. This move was never intended to be permanent, but it’s been good, despite the unbelievable traffic. It’s given me a broader perspective on things.

ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

JG: How do you acquire whalebone and ivory when you’re living in the South?

or whalebone items that were used in types of spiritual ceremonies and practices. I wanted to de-demonize them. They’re not evil! They represent a completely different perception of this world, one that is worth preserving.

SS:

Sometimes my friends and relatives back home will give me ivory. That’s happened throughout my career—people share. Or I can order from the store and just have them send it to me COD. Sometimes I’ll have my family members go and pick out what I want.

Sometimes they have a good supply; other times they don’t. Some years there’s hardly any ivory. In fact, the numbers for the walrus that are being harvested are going down because of climate change.

JG: A lot of your work comments on issues that are specifically facing Alaska Native women. Could you talk about any particular works that really exemplify that, and how you’ve been able to use your art to advocate on behalf of Alaska Natives?

JG: I can see that you are inspired by the wooden and ivory Okvik figures that have been excavated on St. Lawrence Island and the Punuk Islands, dating back over 2,000 years. I can feel their influence in how you model the faces of your carvings as well as your use of incised detail. Have you encountered many of these objects firsthand in your community or in museums and books?

SS: If you grow up a Native woman, or even a Native person— I know this happens in Canada, too—you’re constantly seeing news reports of our women being raped, women being murdered. I read in my friend Timothy Kennedy’s book, Where the River Meets the Sky (2008), that the old hospital even had a name for it; it was called the “Native Harvest.” That really broke my heart when I read that. People knew what was going on, so why hadn’t it become more of an issue much sooner?

Back in 2001, after the murders of five women in the Anchorage area went unsolved, a talented group of Alaska Native women artists and I organized an exhibition called The Ceremony of Healing. The show was about the violence against Native women. We curated it— did everything. A first. We made an impact, you know—we hit the front page and were discussed on television broadcasts. That work was very important to me. That was my first act of activism, and I wasn’t planning on doing that again.

SS: I grew up seeing the ancestral dolls and the pictures of them.

I’ve also researched them at the Smithsonian Institutions in Washington, DC, and New York City, including the collection at the Museum of Natural History in New York. They are beautiful.

To me they represent a deep, deep connection, because the facial characteristics—you can still see them in people today. They look like people that I know and love.

I want to preserve our ancient art forms. In the past, missionaries demonized our—for lack of a better word—religion and our symbols. There are stories about how people burned their ivory

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Interview: Susie Silook

LEFT

Paallengetaq (butterfly spirit) 2010 Ivory and seal whiskers 30.48 × 5.1 × 2.5 cm COURTESY HOME & AWAY GALLERY

RIGHT

Ivory Figure c. 2000 Ivory 9.8 × 2.5 × 3.8 cm DE YOUNG MUSEUM

— That rage—unidentified, unresolved—can harm you. I had to become very familiar with that energy, and now I try to channel it into constructive action.

OPPOSITE

Old Bering Sea Woman 2004 Whalebone 51.4 × 26.1 × 16.3 cm ANCHORAGE MUSEUM

revision of section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act rule for the African elephant. As states have or will be passing laws in compliance with this legislation, our use of the inedible products of our food sources, legally allowed under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), are being conflated with illegal trafficking, and some of the species we harvest are being listed in these bans, including walruses.

This has already damaged our vital market, including the confusion over the legality of any ivory.

A draft of a bill called the Allowing Alaska IVORY Act, sponsored by Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan from Alaska, is intended to exempt mammoth and walrus ivory and whalebone from these bans.

JG: What Does It Take for You to See My Heart (2001) was included in that exhibition and later purchased by the Anchorage Museum.

I think the work, showing a nude woman holding up a small heart made from walrus stomach, is commanding and powerful. Can you speak about what inspired it and how it was received?

SS: It’s a signature piece for me, and it was received well enough, though I did receive some criticism for the work being too raw.

I thought the situation called for that. Sometimes art can be too subtle. I thought I had to make an emphatic statement about how violence like this makes us feel unsafe. It’s hard to feel safe as a Native woman in America sometimes—as a woman, period. I mean, the recent #MeToo revelations should be an eye-opener for everybody. So, What Does It Take for You to See My Heart—I love that piece.

Perennials (2001)—I don’t know if you’ve seen that. It’s cottonwood bark. It was in the same show. And All the Rage (2001) was the drum made for the show. I don’t pull out that image too often. It kind of speaks to my deep, innermost rage. That rage—unidentified, unresolved—can harm you. I had to become very familiar with that energy, and now I try to channel it into constructive action.

JG: What are some of the ways that people can help and see that these bans are lifted or amended?

SS: Well, President Obama’s executive order essentially eliminating the elephant ivory market in America exempts us already. It states that items permitted under existing federal legislation are exempted from this ban, which is us, because the MMPA allows Indigenous people to continue to hunt those sea mammals that are our historic food and then to use the by-products to have a small economy. And in some villages, like those on St. Lawrence Island, this is really important.

Absent of any other economy, subsistence resources are all we have.

Hunting provides upwards of 80% of the food in my village and in other places throughout Alaska. On my island it is predominantly walrus that feeds us, along with the bowhead whale and seals. Items made from their inedible parts provide for a moderate income and allow us to continue to live in harmony with the land and sea, as we have for centuries upon centuries. This is not cheap. Gasoline prices are close to $6 a gallon out there, and food in the store is also too

JG: Since that exhibition you have become vocal about other issues facing Alaska Natives, particularly bans on the materials you use to make artwork. Can you speak about these bans?

SS: Recently, I’ve been helping to draw attention to the growing number of bans on our cultural, sustainable and subsistence resources. This stems from former President Obama’s issuance of Executive Order 13648: Combating Wildlife Trafficking, intended to curb illegal wildlife trafficking—specifically of elephant ivory, in our case—and the USFWS’s [US Fish and Wildlife Service]

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expensive to survive on, so it’s costly but necessary to live off the land.

Our own food is preferred, anyway. It’s truly free-range and organic, though the ocean is polluted and PCBs make their way into our diet.

The sales from arts and crafts—well, this doesn’t affect only the artists. Not every hunter is an artist. The local store back home buys walrus ivory from the hunters, many of whom buy it back when it’s properly cured and the spring and summer harvests are over.

This part of the subsistence economy also supplies ivory to Alaska Natives beyond, in Anchorage and other towns. There are a lot of people involved in this particular market. Part of the problem is we don’t have any numbers. We need a market impact study to see how many people are engaged in this sustainable use market.

I care about what this means for us collectively—not just on my island, but also for Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia. We need to fight the encouraged negative perception that all hunting is evil.

The walruses are not the elephants. There are no organized criminal syndicates poaching and trafficking in walrus ivory, only ancient cultures continuing a sustainable, harmonious way of life with the sea. It’s going to take a lot of public sensitivity and awareness building.

Right now I’m working mainly with Kawerak, the regional nonprofit that represents all the tribes in the Bering Strait. I think they’ve done the most work in this matter. So, here we are with the proposed draft to the bill, and this needs further discussion, because while it’s great that they’re working to exempt the ivories and bones that we use from inclusion in the wildlife bans, this bill should exempt everything that’s covered in the MMPA, because that already covers those mammals. They’re co-managed by Fish and Wildlife and Native organizations. They’re already under protection and monitored.

Everything is tagged—all the ivory is tagged. The walrus population in particular is stable—according to the latest research—and may even be a little beyond capacity.

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JG: Is there anything else you’d like to talk about? Any work that you’re doing or things that you think our readers should know about?

SS: One thing I’d like to see happen is that we become a stronger, more unified culture in the Arctic on these issues. I wasn’t paying attention for a long time, and this ivory ban movement really woke me up. I’m a fan of the entire circumpolar peoples of the Arctic— Sámi, Inuit, everybody—so I’m hoping that, with the challenges of a melting landscape and the rush for the extraction of resources, as well as heavy-handed conservation efforts, collectively we stand up and we have a say in how that’s carried out. And that has to include the preservation of our rights and our culture and the sea—everything.

My island is 38 miles from Russia, and the little opening waterway between St. Lawrence Island and Russia is predicted to increase considerably with ship traffic, because it makes things easier. The new Suez Canal, they’re calling it—the Northern Sea Route. But those same waters are where the whales migrate and the walruses live.

There’s a whole ecosystem that’s important to my culture, and there’s a need to take care of our environment while there’s a mad dash for resource extraction.

Oh, and the one thing I’d like to say that I think is important— I know that Inuit in other nations have a problem with the MMPA because it limits an already limited market. We are possibly the most regulated artists on the face of the planet. But what I want people to understand is that for Alaska Native people living in coastal regions, our hunting is allowed to continue only because of the provisions in the MMPA. We lost our hunting and fishing rights during the creation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which blows. But the MMPA is all we have, currently, and we still need to hunt to survive.

Thank you for inviting me into your publication, which I’ve admired for years.

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Interview: Susie Silook

TO THE BONE: PORTFOLIO

Spirits, Skulls & Stories

William Noah (b. 1943 Qamani’tuaq) —

The Arctic is rich with bones. Found on the tundra, washed up on the shore or harvested from the hunt, Inuit have used bones for tools and in stories and legends since time immemorial. Bone, specifically whalebone and caribou antler, has also been one of the most popular materials employed by Inuit artists in their work. In addition to their use as media, bones have become the subject of many celebrated artists. In the early 1970s, William Noah began making drawings and prints showing “X-ray” shamans and caribou. These incredibly bold graphic works depict shamans who, as apprentices, learned to divest themselves of flesh so that nothing remained but their bones. Also depicted in this Portfolio are skeletal figures by Lucy Meeko (1929– 2004), Abraham Anghik Ruben, OC, Ningiukulu Teevee and Samonie Toonoo (1969–2017).

Others have chosen to depict bones in still lives. Western art history has a long tradition of paintings and sculptures of skulls and bones called memento mori­—memories of death. Though the works shown here may or may not be memento mori, they are each incredibly venerative, showing a deep respect and connection to ancestors, as well as animals hunted for food. Works by Shuvinai Ashoona, RCA, Mark Emerak (1901–1983), Jimmy Manning, Joseph Illupalik Palluq and Couzyn van Heuvelen illustrate animal bones on the land, a grieving figure and a geometric rendering of a bird skull.

The works in the following pages offer a poignant reminder of the fleetingness of mortality as well as the long future ahead for those physical pieces that remain. Whalebone in particular must be left to age for upwards of a hundred years before it is dry enough for carving. As a result, bone, as both material and subject, conjures an awareness of time that is understandably slower.

PREVIOUS SPREAD

The Skeletoned Caribou 1974 Coloured pencil 56.2 × 76 cm COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTO ERNEST MAYER

Shuvinai Ashoona (b. 1961 Kinngait) — BELOW

Animal Bones 2016 Ink and coloured pencil 111.8 × 181.6 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS

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Mark Emerak (1901–1983 Ulukhaktok) — RIGHT

Summer Camp 1985 Hand-coloured lithograph 61 × 66 cm COURTESY WADDINGTON’S

Jimmy Manning (b. 1951 Kinngait) — LEFT

Polar Bear Skull c. 1980 Slide photograph COURTESY THE ARTIST

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A man travelling on foot with some companions ate some berries that contained the effect of a bad spirit. He was warned not to eat any of these unusual berries, but he was so hungry that he had to take some while the others went ahead of him. He ate berries and immediately lost his flesh. . . . And his clothing didn’t fit any more since he was only bones.

They are just lying around him. And the food he is eating just falls through his jaws.1 — Lucy Meeko

Lucy Meeko (1929–2004 Kuujjuaraapik) — LEFT

The Story of a Man Who Lost All His Flesh 1974 Serigraph 54 × 73.7 cm

Samonie Toonoo (1969–2017 Kinngait) — RIGHT

Caribou Transformation 2013 Serpentinite and antler 26.7 × 26.7 × 7.6 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY INUIT GALLERY OF VANCOUVER

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This drawing is based on a Greenlandic story. A mother of a murdered son became a polar bear to avenge her son. The bear was killed to save the camp. When it was cut up, inside was a human skeleton of the mother.2

Ningiukulu Teevee (b. 1963 Kinngait) — The Avenging Spirit 2014 Coloured pencil and graphite 76.2 × 111.8 cm

— Ningiukulu Teevee

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REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY INUIT GALLERY OF VANCOUVER

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The work is called Lost and Confused. It is about holding on to the dead and listening for life. After losing too many loved ones to unfortunate passings, I became isolated and lonely. The skull represents the people I was grieving, the caribou legs represent the spirit within and the hand over the ear represents looking for life.3 — Joseph Illupalik Palluq

Joseph Illupalik Palluq (b. 1943 Iglulik) — LEFT

Lost and Confused n.d.

Steatite 35.6 × 20.3 × 22.9 cm COURTESY WADDINGTON’S

Abraham Anghik Ruben (b. 1951 Salt Spring Island) — LEFT

Apprentice (Running Shaman) 1977 Stone 45.8 × 30.2 × 20.5 cm

Couzyn van Heuvelen (b. 1987 Bowmanville) — ABOVE

Crystal Bird 2010 Plastic, steel and stainless steel 20.3 × 20.3 × 15.2 cm COURTESY THE ARTIST

COURTESY WALKER'S AUCTIONS PHOTO DIETER HESSEL

NOTES ¹ Marybelle Myers, Arctic Quebec 1974: Prints (Montreal: La Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Quebec, 1974), 19. ² “The Avenging Spirit by Inuit Artist Ningiukulu Teevee,” Inuit Gallery of Vancouver, accessed January 2017. https://inuit.com/products/dr141037. ³ Facebook communication with Joseph Illupalik Palluq on January 9, 2018.

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To the Bone

Thomas Ugjuk Rankin Inlet, 1921 - 2012

Hunters struggling for a knife Specializing in Sculpture, Drawings & Mixed-media since 1996 Appraisal Services Consignment Inquiries Welcome

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YOUR TRUSTED ONLINE ART GALLERY FOR PRINTS, ORIGINAL PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS AND WALL-HANGINGS. Dedicated to promoting authentic Northwest Coast, Woodland and Inuit art to the world.

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Earthlings features the extraordinary solo and collaborative work of artists Roger Aksadjuak, Shuvinai Ashoona, Pierre Aupilardjuk, Shary Boyle, Jessie Kenalogak, John Kurok, and Leo Napayok.

Published in Inuktitut, French and English, and including texts by Shary Boyle, Heather Igloliorte, Naomi Potter, and Shauna Thompson, this elegantly designed large-format publication includes over eighty colour illustrations.

Available at: eskerfoundation.com/shop Don’t miss the Earthlings exhibtion on tour: Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto: November 1, 2017 – January 27, 2018 Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal: March 8 – April 14, 2018 Nanaimo Art Gallery: August 2 – October 6, 2018 Earthlings is co-published by Esker Foundation, Doris McCarthy Gallery, Galerie de l’UQAM, and Nanaimo Art Gallery.

Image: Pierre Aupilardjuk and Shary Boyle, Facing Forward, 2016, smoke-fired stoneware, porcelain. Photo by: M.N. Hutchinson.

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Arctic and Indian arts st for the 21 century

Healing Wings: Susie Silook

26 Maine Street Kennebunkport, Maine 207 967-2122

Sculpture | Prints | Jewelry |Beadwork |Baskets shop online: www.homeandawaygallery.com

Inuit Art Gallery Carvings I Drawings I Prints I Gifts Toronto . Jordan Village . Ottawa store@northernexpressionsart.ca

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SOCIETY OF CANADIAN ARTISTS Raising the profile of Canadian art by supporting Canadian artists

OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSION

Meet like-minded collectors, academics, gallery owners and museum representatives.

50th SCA International Juried Exhibition

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Submissions due June 1, 2018

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LEGACY

A Man of Many Faces: Karoo Ashevak in 35mm

by John Geoghegan Karoo Ashevak files a piece of whalebone PHOTOS PAMELA HARRIS, 1972

Though much has been written about his art and meteoric rise to prominence in the early 1970s, little is known about Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974) the man—there are no extant interviews with the artist, few first-hand accounts published and only a handful of photos of him that have been circulated. In tracking down photos for the feature written by Leslie Boyd (on page 26 of this issue), the IAQ interviewed Pamela Harris, a Toronto-based photographer who lived in Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU, in the early 1970s and who shared beautiful memories of the artist at work, at play and in New York City.

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“I was up in [Talurjuaq] for three weeks in 1972 and three months in 1973—late summer, early fall, going into October. At that point in [Talurjuaq] there were different kinds of housing, but they were all pre-fab. Karoo was living in an older house, what they were calling matchboxes because they were small and rectangular. His wife, Doris, and his children, Larry and Louise, were a lovely family. One of the pictures in my book [Another Way of Being: Photographs of Spence Bay N.W.T. (1976)] is of Doris and Larry.

Karoo, when you watched him work— and I did because I was photographing him— he would be sitting out there in the cold, you know, with oil tanks behind him, working away on a huge piece of whalebone with real focus and concentration. He concentrated intensely on his work. But when he engaged with me, he was flamboyant. He was kind and full of life, and what he made was so interesting.

According to Judy McGrath, he had studied with a shaman who had one eye a little larger than the other, and he loved to recreate that in his pieces. He was so fanciful and had such a totally creative, fun-filled mind. When you look at his pieces, they are full of humour; he loved putting things in [the figures’] mouths and having strings connected to different things. He was so different from [other artists] who would make a beautiful bird or polar bear.

In 1973 I went camping out on the land with Theresa Quaqjuaq and her family. To get there we took a leaky little boat, called a kicker, on the Arctic Ocean. When we were all leaving and heading back to [Talurjuaq], Karoo roared up in a speedier boat, purchased with the money he had made from carvings. I went back with Karoo, and it was a very fast trip! All I remember was that I Spring 2018

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Karoo works on a carving outside of his home in Talurjuaq

It was a shock to me to see his work on display on Madison Avenue with amazing price tags. felt much safer in the slightly leaky wooden [boat] than with Karoo, because he really liked cutting it and going fast. It was part of his flamboyance. Even if he was on his Ski-Doo, he was going fast.

In early 1973 I went to New York City to photograph Karoo at the opening of his exhibition Karoo Ashevak: Spirits at the American Indian Arts Center. I don’t have any of the photos I took; they all went to Northern Affairs [then the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND), now Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC)], or Canadian Arctic Producers or somebody. I don’t even have the negatives.

Sadly, the photos are probably all lost.

It was a shock to me to see his work on display on Madison Avenue with amazing price tags. Karoo wasn’t simply a carver; he was an artist, an absolute artist. I think my biggest memory of Karoo in New York City was when we all went up to the top of the Empire State Building. He looked out over all of that cement, all those sterile buildings, and his comment was about the air and how dirty it was.” – Pamela Harris

CENTRE

Karoo and his father, Mungilik BOTTOM

Karoo poses in front of his work Spirit

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CURATORIAL NOTES

raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015) Onsite Gallery

Installation view of raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015) at Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, 2017 IMAGES COURTESY ONSITE GALLERY AND INDIGENOUS AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS CANADA PHOTOS YUULA BENIVOLSKI

SEPTEMBER 16–DECEMBER 10, 2017 OCAD UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ON

by Ryan Rice

The curatorial premise of the exhibition raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015) was to bring greater public attention to this lesser-known, federally-managed (by INAC) national heritage collection (est. 1965) and to build upon the distinct profiles of contemporary Indigenous art and artists through a selection of the collection’s most recent acquisitions. For the inaugural exhibition at OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery, contemporary Indigenous art occupied and activated the new space located in Toronto’s Entertainment District.

With over 9,000 visitors, raise a flag sucessfully widened the canon of a Canadian Inuit Art Quarterly

contemporary art history to be inclusive, diverse, relevant and Indigenous. raise a flag emerged out of the sesquicentennial celebratory barrage and strategically shifted attention toward the collection’s significance as an archive and a legacy that contains many of the truths the country continues to seek out. Mining the collection’s creative and critical discourse also allowed me to address the sign of the times—namely, the issues confronting the national narrative in the era of reconciliation.

The exhibition gave viewers an opportunity to activate an invaluable collection and offered a counter-narrative to the country’s 60

anniversary messaging, shedding light upon the pressing socio-political issues that Indigenous artists are powerfully addressing in their practices.

The 49 works by 33 artists selected for the exhibition reveal the breadth and beauty that the collection represents and emphasize the critical creative contributions that have been made to an Indigenous and Canadian art history and that require immediate attention. Each work offers diverse points of Indigenous worldviews, an approach that authenticates the versatile nature of Indigenous art and that invites the viewer to take notice and bear witness to these Spring 2018

CURATORIAL NOTES

Each work offers diverse points of Indigenous worldviews, an approach that authenticates the versatile nature of Indigenous art and invites the viewer to take notice and bear witness to these critical discourses and approaches.

critical discourses and approaches. From subtle to provocative, the works all interrogate and prioritize Indigeneity and its affect, radiating through the power of creativity, imagination and cultural expression.

Through the curatorial project and process, I was afforded an opportunity to champion Inuit art’s vital, foundational aesthetic and influence as a critical component to the exhibition. Inuit art offered a broader critical perspective to the curatorial premise and collapsed the divide between First Nations and Inuit art practices and representation, which was previously emphasized in the Indigenous Art Centre’s collection exhibitions Transitions: Contemporary Canadian Indian and Inuit Art (1997) and Transitions 2: Contemporary Indian and Inuit Art of Canada (2001). These two exhibitions are notable for re-introducing, or re-integrating, Inuit art acquisitions into the national collection after the comprehensive Inuit Art Collection was dispersed to multiple institutions (the result of a transfer agreement reached in 1989).¹ Since then the separate Inuit and Indian Art Centres have been amalgamated as the Indigenous Art Centre (formerly the Aboriginal Art Centre).

This equity amplified the strength of the collection and recognized the tenacity of a distinct and diverse visual culture, upheld by generations of First Nations, Inuit and Métis artists across the country.

The artworks selected from 13 Inuit artists, whose careers range from emerging to established, addressed histories and narratives often hidden within the country’s fabric and uncovered critical issues that were central to and supported the exhibition’s conception. Barry Pottle’s photographs

Awareness 1 and Awareness 2, from The Awareness Series (2009–10), introduced viewers to the insensitive and degrading governmental identification system (disc numbers) implemented across the North, while Jimmy Iqaluq’s argillite sculpture In the Past, the RCMP Killed the Dogs (2005) conveys the certainties of the forced strategy, sanctioned by government authorities, to limit Inuit access to the land.² Such consequences contributed to matters of food sovereignty addressed in Myra Kukiiyaut’s (1929–2006) linocut print Shopping for Pilot Biscuits, Flour, Salt, Groceries (2008) and the realities of traumatic crises allegorically revealed in Mark Igloliorte’s large oil painting Untitled (2008). These events continue to influence the current (and future) status of communal well-being, reconciliation and resilience. Inspiration drawn from transition, isolation, technology and encounters with the “other” are rendered through the experience of lived memories in prints by Annie Pootoogook (1969–2016), Ohotaq Mikkigak (1936–2014), Pitaloosie Saila, RCA, and Tim Pitsiulak (1967–2016), among others, that offered multifaceted Inuit perspectives for viewers to contemplate.

The exhibition also provided an opportunity to bring communities together: first, as a gathering of artists representative of the collection and second, through public programming that began with an afternoon block-party celebration, featuring a roster of Indigenous performers. The exhibition offered critical insight into the collection’s history with the symposium Stories from the Vault, featuring former managers and curators of the collection, including Tom Hill, David General, Rick Hill, Barry Ace,

Myra Kukiiyaut (1929–2006 Qamani’tuaq) — Shopping for Pilot Biscuits, Flour, Salt, Groceries 2008 Stonecut 62.2 × 99.1 cm

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Jimmy Iqaluq (b. 1947 Sanikiluaq) — In the Past, the RCMP Killed the Dogs 2005 Mixed media on argillite 11 × 21 × 9 cm

Installation view of raise a flag: works from the Indigenous Art Collection (2000–2015) at Onsite Gallery, OCAD University, Toronto, 2017

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CURATORIAL NOTES

Mark Igloliorte (b. 1977 Vancouver/ Corner Brook) — Untitled 2008 Oil on canvas 91.5 × 396 cm

Barry Pottle and myself, and moderated

by Linda Grussani. Rigorous programming fuelled the exhibition over the three-month run, with artist talks by Lisa Myers and Mark Igloliorte, presentations by Susan Blight and Lindsay Nixon, the first-ever public Inuit Artist Database Edit-a-Thon and an Indigenous mapping, pennant-making workshop.

In realizing the exhibition as primarily an educational opportunity that could invite public inquiry, I led 41 tours of classes and diverse groups from the GTA who were interested in enriching their experience and understanding of Indigenous art in Canada.

A comprehensive resource guide was vital to the exhibition’s development and was made available to the public as a downloadable document on the gallery’s website. The survey of works contributed greatly to the interpretation of a dynamic national narrative, informing audiences of unfamiliar current issues, addressing colonial histories, identity politics, sovereignty, social injustice, land Bone

and reclamation; issues that are witnessed and exposed through the influence and relevancy of art.

The creative legacy that raise a flag introduced to the public represents only a fragment of the collection’s magnitude, which has the potential to encompass the vital contributions of Indigenous art and culture within the global art history canon.

The opportunity to raise awareness of the power of Indigenous art is a reflection of the relationships and spaces between cultures that speak volumes to the multiple identities of a nation moving forward.

NOTES

In 1989 the Inuit Art Collection of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND; now Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada [INAC]), totaling some 5,000 pieces in varying media, including sculpture, print, drawing and textile work, was dispersed between the Inuit Cultural Institute in Arviat, NU (originally stored at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife, NWT, and

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now part of the Government of Nunavut Collection held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery [WAG]), the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC; now the Canadian Museum of History, the WAG and the Avataq Cultural Institute. In 1983 the collection was appraised at $1,592,162.

Nancy S. Mullick, The Transfer of the Northern Affairs (NA) and Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada (INAC) Collections of Inuit Art: 1985–1992 (master’s thesis, Concordia University, 1998), 39.

At the time of transfer the NGC, CMC and WAG committed themselves to establishing on-the-job training programs in museology for Inuit. Additionally, the CMC committed to including Inuit in its artist-inresidence program. The Department did not begin actively collecting Inuit art again until the mid-1990s.

For additional details see Inuit Art Quarterly 4, no. 4 (Fall 1989): 40.

2 These two works and the historical contexts surrounding their creation are discussed in the education guide created for this exhibition, available through https://www2.ocadu.ca/event/raise-a-flagworks-from-the-indigenous-art-collection-2000-2015.

Also see Heather Igloliorte, “Arctic Culture/Global Indigeneity,” in Negotiations in a Vacant Lot: Studying the Visual in Canada, ed. Lynda Jessup, Erin Morton and Kirsty Robertson (Montreal & Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 2014).

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REVIEW

Insurgence/Resurgence Winnipeg & Gallery

Tsēma Igharas — Ejideh: Push it!

2017 Mixed media Dimensions variable ALL IMAGES COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTOS SCOTT BENESIINAABANDAN

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017–APRIL 22, 2018 WINNIPEG, CANADA

by Krista Ulujuk Zawadski

Challenging the concept of a traditional art exhibition, Insurgence/Resurgence at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) utilizes a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to create a dynamic, Indigenous curatorial framework. Co-curated by Indigenous curators Jaimie Isaac, the WAG’s newly appointed Curator of Indigenous and Contemporary Art, and Dr. Julie Nagam, University of Winnipeg/WAG Chair in the History of Indigenous Art in North America, the exhibition brings together 29 emerging and established Indigenous artists across multiple public and gallery spaces within the institution. Taken as a whole, the exhibition is a statement of activism, nationhood and solidarity that explores cultural authority and Inuit Art Quarterly

the insurgence and resurgence of Indigenous cultures, while creating connections across languages, lands, generations, genders and backgrounds. At its core, the exhibition pays homage to the land Winnipeg is on: Turtle Island; the Anishinaabe, Ininiiwak, Ahinishiniak, Dakota and Dene peoples of Treaty One territory and the Métis homeland. Notably, Insurgence/Resurgence also traces the footsteps of previous foundational Indigenous art exhibitions, situating itself within a long and powerful lineage of Indigenous curatorial practice. These are powerful declarations to make and ones for which Isaac and Nagam deserve to be recognized, in their efforts to assert cultural voice, authority and agency within the gallery.

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Before even entering the WAG, Insurgence/Resurgence captures public attention with Creation Story (2017), a largescale printed banner by Kenneth Lavallee that hangs prominently from the roof, down the front of the building. This welcoming gesture reflects the exhibition’s far reach across almost every public space of the gallery—in addition to the exterior wall, aspects of Insurgence/Resurgence can be encountered in the front entrance, Eckhardt Hall and the elevators, stairs and landings that guide you to the galleries, as well as an adjacent sky light and finally across two sprawling gallery spaces. The scale and scope of the exhibition can then be read as a strong statement by the WAG of their Spring 2018

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Tuniit (2017), an artist book made by Asinnajaq, alongside Mother and Child (1952), attributed to Noah Qinuajua (1913–1960)

commitment to supporting and encouraging Indigenous art and agency, a fact that is further underscored by the commissioning of 12 new pieces for the exhibition.¹ As soon as I entered the first gallery, I found myself softly singing an Inuktut song that is a favourite of mine. I was confused as to what had triggered the song before realizing it was being played in Three Thousand (2017), an animated film by Asinnajaq (Isabella Weetaluktuk), whose ambient and dreamy audio can be heard upon entering the space. It is a powerful piece that includes imagery of past, present and future Inuit livelihood: young Inuit learning to write in the early residential school era, in the Arctic; children smiling as they ride their qamutiik (sled) pulled by dogs; a family in an igloo and natiruviaq (snow blowing close to the ground). I was captivated by the film and found myself feeling cultural nostalgia and pride as I watched the various scenes that

I was captivated by the film and found myself feeling cultural nostalgia and pride as I watched the various scenes that Asinnajaq had stitched together with historical footage from the National Film Board of Canada’s audiovisual archive.

One of the strongest aspects of the Asinnajaq had stitched together with historical exhibition is Nagam and Isaac’s commitment footage from the National Film Board of to creating an exploratory environment.

Canada’s audiovisual archive. The film takes Labels are minimal and unobtrusively you through pre- and early settlement life located on the floor, and several works among Inuit, their assimilation into larger invite viewer participation. Perhaps most Canadian society through wage employment, importantly, the voices of artists themselves education and other events, views of are always present. In addition to contribucontemporary and modern Inuit life and tions by leading Indigenous scholars, animations of what Asinnajaq sees as the the accompanying catalogue prominently future for Inuit.

This honouring of the past while looking features texts authored by the artists, granting them autonomy and authority ahead to possible futures is carried across over their work and allowing viewers to numerous works in the exhibition. Further into the space a large, dark canvas is pinned experience them directly. ² At its core, this approach sits comfortably within the along one edge of a wall and draped over the floor. The piece a gift from Doreen (2016) principles of an Indigenous curatorial

by Duane Linklater was created from a worn practice by offering the primary voice to artists. As a whole, Isaac and Nagam’s teepee, torn from a windstorm, and acts as thoughtful and generous curating will a reminder that cultural authority over land is defined by the use and occupation of that serve as an important model for future land. It is a strong statement that Indigenous Indigenous curators. peoples across Canada are still authorities over our lands. Extending this affirmation NOTES of cultural authority to the body, three Indigenous tattoo artists from the Earthline 1 This commitment to supporting Indigenous artists as well as other cultural workers is echoed in my own Tattoo Collective—Jordan Bennett, Dion experience with the WAG. At present, I am working Kaszas and Amy Malbeuf—set up individual with the gallery on a forthcoming exhibition of artists tattoo stations in the gallery space and, from Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, co-curated with Isaac. I am also a member of the inaugural curatorial for the duration of the opening, tattooed guests. Each station featured an Indigenous 2 team for the WAG’s Inuit Art Centre (opening in 2020).

The catalogue for Insurgence/Resurgence features work from the WAG collection, including writings by Dr. Julie Nagam and Jaimie Isaac, as well The Young and the Old (1977) by Luke as Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Dr. Sherry Farrell Racette, Anguhadluq (1895–1982).

Ryan Rice and Tania Willard.

Duane Linklater — RIGHT

a gift from Doreen 2016 Teepee canvas and nails Dimensions variable

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REVIEW

Padloo Samayualie: North & South Feheley Fine Arts

BELOW

Installation view of Padloo Samayualie: North & South, 2017 Padloo Samayualie (b. 1977 Kinngait) — OPPOSITE

Waiting for Food 2017 Ink and coloured pencil 76.2 × 58.4 cm

OCTOBER 21–NOVEMBER 11, 2017 TORONTO, CANADA

ARTWORKS REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS ALL IMAGES COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS

by Angelica Demetriou

How does one’s experience of place shift when explored through a series of moments and memories? How does one’s vision of home transform upon a return? The first solo exhibition of emerging artist Padloo Samayualie, titled North & South, brings together a collection of graphic works that juxtapose the artist’s observations of life in her home community of Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, with those in New York City, the site of her recent artist residency at the Brooklyn Museum. The resulting body of work evokes the sensation of taking a step back to revisit familiar spaces in the same way a tourist might explore unfamiliar places.

With some works rendered from source photographs and others based on imagination and memory, Samayualie’s series of pencil-and-ink drawings measures the vastness of Kinngait against the density Inuit Art Quarterly

of New York City as a means of tracing the similitude between these disparate regions.

The artist moves swiftly and fluidly between both sites, deconstructing their architectural anatomies and isolating the objects and infrastructures that make up their urban and rural forms.

At first glance the depicted spaces appear to be devoid of life. No human figures are seen punctuating the landscape of Kinngait. No persons are visibly present amongst the tightly concentrated towers of New York City. And yet, in Samayualie’s drawings these scenes are positively teeming with life and energy. These locales and the objects within them become the living, breathing characters in her story.

In Pipes in New York (2016) Samayualie captures a matrix of water pipes, set against a brick-and-mortar backdrop. Concealed by 66

the skin of the city’s looming towers, these galvanized arteries lace through the metropolis, pumping water through the limbs of the city. In a similar vein, Samayualie’s depictions of the northern landscape— specifically, Waiting for Food (2017) and A Pole – No Life Without It (2017) —foreground Kinngait’s network of utility poles and power lines. A recurring element in Samayualie’s drawings of the North, the electrical wires and cables hum with energy as they feed power to the homes of the hamlet’s residents.

Samayualie’s musings on the symmetry of place are perhaps most pronounced in Bricks and Windows, New York (2016) and Two Doors (2016). In these works the artist surveys the rhythm, repetition and pattern of local architecture by throwing into sharp relief the multi-tonal façade of the Kinngait Spring 2018

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co-op and a detail of the red-brick exterior of a New York apartment building. With depictions of windows and doors at the fore of these two scenes, Samayualie invites the viewer into her graphic compositions while signalling that the means of entry have been drawn closed, documented, as they are, from the outside. The artist has created a moment of pause within her work, positioning the viewer as a bystander or sightseer and reminding her audience of their acute spectatorship.

Other works in the series include depictions of a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century Alaskan pipe from the Brooklyn Museum; an ATV perched atop a shipping container; a brilliant red house that pierces the stark, white landscape like a beacon in the night; and ceremonial masks—both real and imagined.

When viewed as a collection, Samayualie’s drawings bring into focus the similarities between these northern and southern regions. This body of work is a meditation on the architecture of place, a mature and remarkable study of the ordinary objects and infrastructures that connect and sustain these two divergent communities. Depicted in isolation from the human subject, the objects and spaces in Samayualie’s drawings take on lives of their own. They animate her story about North and South and create a compelling narrative about the traces and symmetries of life between and within these two regions.

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NEWS

Updates and highlights from the world of Inuit art and culture

BELOW

OPPOSITE

Cast members read lines on the set of The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006), produced by Isuma

Rhoda Kokiapik accepts the 2017 Rights and Freedoms Award in Montreal in December

COURTESY ISUMATV

COURTESY AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ROBERT FRÉCHETTE

Funding and Curatorial Future of the WAG’s Inuit Art Centre

Isuma to Represent Canada at the 58th Venice Biennale Artist collective Isuma has been named the 2019 representative of the Canada Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale by the National Gallery of Canada. Isuma was co-founded in 1990 by Zacharias Kunuk, OC, Pauloosie Qulitalik, Paul Apak Angilirq and Norman Cohn. Their cinematic work has been celebrated all over the world, most notably winning the Caméra d’Or for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, in May 2001, at Cannes.

This is only the second time that an Inuk artist has been featured at the fair. The IAQ previously reported the inclusion of Kananginak Pootoogook, RCA, in the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

In 2002 both Atanarjuat and Nunavut (Our Land), a 13-part TV series, were shown at documenta11 in Kassel, Germany.

Isuma’s second feature, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, opened the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and its third feature, Before Tomorrow, written and directed by women’s video collective Arnait Video Productions, based in Iglulik, was screened Inuit Art Quarterly

in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Isuma, currently celebrating their 30th year, was featured on the cover of the IAQ’s 25th Anniversary issue in 2011. In 2016 the IAF was proud to sponsor Isuma’s release Maliglutit (Searchers) as part of the 17th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. The film went on to win Best Indigenous Language Production. Most recently, the IAQ featured Kunuk as an elder artist in our 30th Anniversary issue’s Portfolio “30 Artists to Know.”

“Inuit went from Stone Age to Digital Age in my lifetime,” said Kunuk in a statement.

“Everything is taught by what you see. Your father’s fixing up the harpoon; you watch how he does it and you learn from it. For the medium I work in now, it was the same.

Oral history and new technology match.

I am trying to do this with my videos—tell the story behind how we lived. We try to make everything authentic, so a hundred years from now when people see our films, they’ll know how to do it.”

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After waiting more than a year for a final funding decision, Manitoba Sport, Culture and Heritage Minister Cathy Cox has confirmed the provincial government will provide $10 million to the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s (WAG) Inuit Art Centre over five years. These funds will support contributions already promised by the federal government and the City of Winnipeg ($20 million and $5 million, respectively).

A first-of-its-kind cultural landmark, the 40,000-square-foot Inuit Art Centre will house the WAG’s collection of over 13,000 pieces of Inuit art as well as the substantial Government of Nunavut Fine Art Collection, currently on loan to the gallery, and offer learning programs delivered by Indigenous instructors.

In 2015 the province committed $15 million in funding to the construction of the Inuit Art Centre, but a change in government, in 2016, put that commitment in jeopardy. In August of last year, Premier Brian Pallister’s government told the WAG it would know by the end of the month whether or not the previous government’s pledge would be upheld. That date was then shifted to the end of December.

Although the allocated funds fall $5 million short of what Manitoba’s previous government promised, WAG Director and CEO Stephen Borys is pleased with the outcome.

“The Province of Manitoba’s commitment to the Inuit Art Centre is a major step forward,” Borys said in a statement. “We thank the province and look forward to working with the government and the community to ensure the WAG continues to serve all Manitobans using art to connect, inspire and inform.”

The confirmation of funding comes on the heels of the announcement of the guest curatorial team that will lead the inaugural exhibition calendar for the centre.

Dr. Heather Igloliorte, Assistant Professor of Art History and University Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and Community Engagement at Concordia University, made Spring 2018

NEWS

the announcement on December 1 at the Initiative for Indigenous Futures’ 3rd Annual Symposium on the Future Imaginary. Igloliorte will be one of four curators representing different regions of Inuit Nunangat, along with Asinnajaq (Isabella Weetaluktuk), a visual artist, filmmaker and writer; Jade Nasogaluak Carpenter, a multimedia artist and emerging curator; and Krista Ulujuk Zawadski, Government of Nunavut Curator of Inuit Art. Andrew Qappik Named Member of the Order of Canada In a statement released December 29, 2017, Governor General Julie Payette announced 125 new appointments to the Order of Canada, including graphic artist and printmaker Andrew Qappik, RCA, who has been named a Member of the Order of Canada “for his contributions to defining the visual culture of Nunavut as a master printmaker and sculptor.” Qappik is the second Inuk artist to have been named to the Order of Canada in 2017. In June 2017 the IAQ was pleased to report on RCA artist Michael Massie’s appointment, alongside that of Ellen Hamilton, founding member of Qaggiavuut! and passionate supporter of Arctic performing arts.

Based in Panniqtuuq (Pangnirtung), NU, Qappik has been actively drawing since the age of eight, with his first prints catalogued at fourteen. Often portraying multiple perspectives of his subjects and featuring vibrant colours, Qappik’s works are widely celebrated for their evocative nature and resonance. Qappik is also known for his work advising the Chief Herald of Canada on the design for Nunavut’s flag and coat of arms and for his work on the Government of Nunavut and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. logos.

The IAQ has followed Qappik’s notable artistic career for several years. The artist was profiled in our Fall/Winter 2004 Arts Alive Special Issue and was highlighted in our Winter 2005 issue, which focused on Qappik’s graphic art and his ability to imbue contemporary Arctic scenes with life. More recently, Qappik was the subject of our Fall 2010 issue’s Curatorial Notes, written by Darlene Coward Wight, Curator of Inuit Art at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, on the occasion of his first solo retrospective. “There is a strong storytelling impetus in Qappik’s work that is facilitated by his multiple perspectives and his use of very fine detailing,” explained Wight. This thoughtful approach to both subject and composition has remained vital to Qappik’s artistic output and is visible throughout his practice.

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Qappik’s appointment to the Order of Canada follows another major national honour: designing two 25-cent coins that were released by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2017. The limited-edition coins were part of a four-part series that explored the predator-and-prey relationship between the Arctic fox and the Arctic hare. Qappik’s designs featured a fox and hare surrounded by a walrus, lemming, falcon and fish.

Avataq Presented Rights and Freedoms Award

Zacharias Kunuk and Asinnajaq Win TFCA Awards In November 2017 celebrated filmmaker and Isuma co-founder Zacharias Kunuk, OC, added another accolade to his already impressive CV when the Toronto Film Critics Association (TFCA) announced him as the winner of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award, which recognizes a person in the Canadian film industry who has contributed to the evolution of Canadian cinema.

In the spirit of paying it forward, the award allows the winner to name a filmmaker who will receive $50,000 in services from Technicolor Creative Services. In December 2017 the TFCA announced Kunuk had chosen Asinnajaq as the recipient.

Asinnajaq’s first film, Three Thousand (2017), was screened at TIFF, where it won the Kent Monkman Award for Best Experimental Work.

Kunuk and Asinnajaq accepted their awards at the TFCA’s 21st Annual Awards Gala, held on January 9, 2018, in Toronto.

KCC Finishes Fundraising Campaign on a High Note In December 2017 the Kenojuak Cultural Centre and Print Shop (KCC) ended its private sector campaign, which it had begun in May 2014, with approximately $3.3 million raised—exceeding its $3 million target.

The governments of Canada and Nunvaut have provided almost $8 million, while the community of Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, the centre’s future home, has contributed $78,000. The centre will be the first of its kind in the hamlet.

“Along with our partner, the Municipality, we are committed to developing and promoting the Kenojuak Centre as a significant community place and an internationally recognized arts destination,” said Pingwartok Ottokie, President of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (WBEC), in a statement.

WBEC will be the main tenants of the centre with the goal of providing a modern working environment for Kinngait artists, many of whom work with the co-op in the Kinngait Studios. The centre’s official opening is projected for fall 2018.

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The Avataq Cultural Institute was one of eight organizations to receive the 2017 Rights and Freedoms Award, presented by Quebec’s Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse (Human Rights and Youth Commission) in December 2017.

In honour of the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the award was given to initiatives that have worked to promote the rights of Indigenous peoples in Quebec.

Avataq’s primary aim is to conserve and promote Inuktut and Inuit traditions, while still adapting to modern ways of living.

Nunavik elders created the institute “for the sake of our future generations—the youth,” said Rhoda Kokiapik, Executive Director of Avataq, who accepted the award. “So we at Avataq are looking to the youth as we move toward Avataq’s 40th anniversary, taking place in 2021.”

Natar Ungalaq and Asinnajaq Nominated for Canadian Screen Awards In January 2018 two Inuit artists were nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards.

Natar Ungalaq was nominated in the category Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Iqaluit (2016), while Asinnajaq’s short film Three Thousand (2017) was nominated for Best Short Documentary.

Ungalaq, an actor and director, played the lead role in Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001). He also won Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role at the Genie Awards for The Necessities of Life (2008) in 2009 and co-directed the film Maliglutit (Searchers) (2016).

Asinnajaq is a filmmaker and curator.

Her films have screened at imagineNATIVE and iNuit Blanche in St. John’s, NL. Her curatorial credits include the film and cultural festival Tillitarniit (formerly Tillutarniit) in 2016 and the short film program Channel 51 Igloolik at imagineNATIVE in 2017.

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LAST LOOK

Maudie Okittuq Talurjuaq

This work, created by Maudie Okittuq from an oosik (walrus penis bone) as part of the Order of the Walrus Collection, commissioned by the Walrus Foundation, depicts a composite scene of four figures. From the bottom up, the first two are a male figure with sharp protruding teeth, perhaps tusks, topped by a figure that is half bird, half woman.

With a downturned mouth, her wings are tucked neatly—and tightly it appears—behind her.

The third figure, with hind flippers pointed upward, is a seal sporting a rather distressed expression and cradling a dainty bird—the fourth figure—perched with wings outstretched.

The piece, measuring only 10.5 centimetres around, has been exactingly carved by Okittuq, whose attention to detail is visible in the undulating curves of the man’s parka and the symmetrical notches cut into the seal creature’s foreflipper, as well as her command of the temperamental material. Bone, with its varying textures, has a propensity to crack or split. In Arvak (2017) this variance in density is subtly parsed through Okittuq’s deeper incisions around the seal’s rear flipper and between the man’s legs, revealing the open, honeycomb-like, spongy bone within.

Writing on the work of Okittuq in 1983, curator Darlene Coward Wight noted that it is “obvious that the raw carving material [of her works is] a powerful impetus to her imagination.

Every piece of whalebone has a different shape and suggests subjects to her.” 1 In this instance, the long, slender shape of the oosik has been transformed by the artist into a highly evocative, narrative piece, affirming that there are incredible forms hiding in bones, just waiting for artists to release them.

NOTES

¹ Darlene Coward Wight, Maudie Okittuq: Sculpture (Winnipeg: Canadian Arctic Producers, 1983), unpaginated.

Maudie Okittuq (b. 1944 Talurjuaq) — Arvak 2017 Walrus bone and antler 57 × 15 × 15 cm COURTESY THE WALRUS FOUNDATION PHOTO MICHAEL CULLEN

Inuit Art Quarterly

72

Spring 2018

LET’S BUILD A

QAGGIQ! Nunavut Performing Arts & Cultural Learning Centre

Qaggiavuut, a non-profit Nunavut performing arts society, invites you to be our partner in an historic event.

For more information on how to help us:

INUIT PERFORMING ARTISTS NEED A SPACE TO LEARN, CREATE AND PRESENT!

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Samonie Toonoo, Hip-Hop Dancer, Cape Dorset, 2007. Image: Toni Hafkenscheid.

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