Inuit Art Quarterly - Mass: Solid Foundations, Solid Futures by Inuit Art Quarterly

CONTENTS

35.3

Inuit Art Quarterly Mass

Front

Features

Back SPOTLIGHT

05 From the Editor

06 Meet the Contributors 08 Impact Update

TRIBUTE

Sanannguagaralaaq/ Miniatures

CHOICE

Highlights from the third circumpolar arts gathering.

70 Nellie Winters by Jessica Winters

5 WORKS

Arctic Arts Summit

News LAST LOOK

Victoria Grey by Phebe Bentley

76 Davidee Alashuak Angutigirk

CHOICE

20 Shirley Moorhouse by Chantal Jung ARTISTS’ CORNER

24 Supporting Artists to Create and Experiment

ON THE COVER FEATURE

PROFILE

26 Olivia (Akeeshoo) Chislett by Alicia Bojkov

32 Shape-shifting by Cass Gardiner

Sizing up the little and big works of Couzyn van Heuvelen. FEATURE

42 Chonk by Franchesca Hebert-Spence

The culturally specific visual language of rounded forms. LEGACY

50 Inuktut on the Airwaves by Corinne Dunphy

How Inuit musicians transformed the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Northern Service broadcasts.

Couzyn van Heuvelen — Arctic Char Steaks (detail) 2021 Steel 27.9 × 45.7 × 15.2 cm COURTESY VISUAL ARTS CENTRE OF CLARINGTON PHOTO LAURA FINDLAY © THE ARTIST

LEFT

Marc Tungilik — Family of Owls c. 1975 Stone and ivory 15.2 × 17.8 × 7.6 cm COURTESY WADDINGTON’S AUCTIONEERS AND APPRAISERS, TORONTO © THE ARTIST

ABOVE

Rebecca Manias — Textile and mixed-media installation Self Portrait by the River (2022), exhibited as part of Theatre in the Bush at the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit PHOTO MIKE THOMAS © THE ARTIST

Mass

Front

MASTHEAD PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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

Executive Director and Publisher Alysa Procida

President Heather Igloliorte Montreal, QC

Editorial Director Britt Gallpen

Vice-President Reneltta Arluk Banff, AB

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 Reconciliation Secretariat at Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and the Department of Canadian Heritage, as well as the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Creates. 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: September 15, 2022 ISSN 0831-6708 Publication Mail Agreement #40050252 Postmaster send address changes to Inuit Art Foundation. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Inuit Art Foundation 1655 Dupont Street Toronto, ON, M6P 3T1 (647) 498-7717 inuitartfoundation.org 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 INUIT ART FOUNDATION. PRINTED IN CANADA. DISTRIBUTED BY MAGAZINES CANADA. 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.

Deputy Editor Sue Carter Associate Editor Napatsi Folger Associate Editor Lisa Frenette Associate Editor Jessica MacDonald Assistant Editor Rachel Taylor Contributing Editor Leanne Inuarak-Dall Contributing Editor Bronson Jacque Legacy Inuit Artist Research Officer Anya Johnson Copy Editor Tiffany Larter Fact Checker Amy Prouty

Secretary-Treasurer Julie Grenier Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC Jamie Cameron Toronto, ON Linda Grussani Ottawa, ON Goretti Kakuktinniq Kangiqliniq, NU Claudette Knight Toronto, ON Michael Massie Kippens, NL Ryan Rice Toronto, ON Director in Training Isabelle Uyaralaaq Avingaq Choquette Montreal, QC

Advertising Manager Nicholas Wattson Art Director Maegan Fidelino Colour Gas Company Printing Interprovincial Group —

FOUNDATION Strategic Initiatives Director Heather Campbell

Inuvialuit Settlement Region Community Liaison Darcie Bernhardt

Operations Manager Brittany Holliss

Nunatsiavut Community Liaison Jessica Winters

Executive Assistant Alyson Hardwick Igloo Tag Coordinator Blandina Attaarjuaq Makkik Annual Giving Manager Evan Maydaniuk Awards Manager Paige Connell

Nunavik Community Liaison Nancy Saunders Nunavut Community Liaison Jesse Tungilik Southern Canada Community Liaison Alberta Rose Williams

Artist Portal Coordinator Alessandra Montefiore Digital Outreach Facilitator Danielle Douez Program Officer Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk Social Media Coordinator Jaelyn Terriak

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

FROM THE EDITOR

LEFT

Saimaiyu Akesuk — Pink Lemming 2015 Printer Qavavau Manumie Stonecut and stencil 61.7 × 78.5 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST

This issue is dedicated to taking up space: from the space of airwaves to the permanent presence of public art, Mass considers what shifts, and how, when people and things unapologetically claim their spot. For me, Pink Lemming (2015) by Saimaiyu Akesuk captures the feeling of this issue perfectly. Included in the Inuit Now release in the 2015 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection, Akesuk’s chubby lemming fills the page. This diminutive and distinctly northern creature is reimagined at a size that belies its humble status but offers a glimpse into a worldview that recognizes that all beings— large and small—have their rightful place in the natural order of things. in a delightful exploration of “chonky” artworks, those round and rotund forms ubiquitous to Inuit art. For Hebert-Spence, these plentiful forms are simultaneously a celebration of abundance and visibility, the logical extension of which is a refusal to recede from view. Finally, we are happy to share a behind-the-scenes look at this summer’s Arctic Arts Summit, co-hosted by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Yukon and co-organized by the Inuit Art Foundation and many other partners. This Spotlight section reflects on the generative power of gathering, something that has been absent for many of us these last few years. For three days in June, circumpolar artists, curators, arts workers and policy-makers came together to connect and collaborate on the possible futures of art in the Global North. Although pandemic restrictions limited the number of in-person delegates, the important conversations generated at this landmark event will continue through new interviews, editorials and artist profiles published on the Arctic Arts Summit Digital Platform over the coming months and beyond.

“Shape-shifting,” our cover story by writer Cass Gardiner, similarly weighs the merits of scale in articulating cultural values through the sculptural work of Couzyn van Heuvelen. Known for “making big things little and little things big,” van Heuvelen has harnessed the open-ended potential of artworks inspired by Inuit ingenuity— lures, qamutiit, avatait—or subsistence—char, seal, walrus—to invite curiosity and dialogue from his audiences, Inuit and non. This speaking twice is taken up in “Inuktut on the Airwaves” in which Corinne Dunphy considers the lasting impact of the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Northern Sessions, whose sound was defined by the music of William Tagoona, Charlie Panigoniak, Lorna Panigoniak, Charlie Adams and others. As Dunphy explains, more than a hundred records were produced, culminating in hours of Inuktut-language music that continues to be broadcast on community radio stations today. For Tagoona and others, the continued relevance of these recordings speaks both to their quality and the ongoing urgent need for Indigenous musicians to be heard. Our Features section concludes with a piece by curator Franchesca Hebert-Spence that returns us to Akesuk’s lemming Mass

Britt Gallpen Editorial Director 5

Front

MEET THE CONTRIBUTORS

A behind-the-scenes look at the issue PHEBE BENTLEY CHOICE: VICTORIA GREY PAGE 18

“I have a personal connection to Victoria Grey but I wanted to remain objective to some degree; I think it forced me to put more thought into my writing and allowed me to grow. I am grateful for that.”

Shirley Moorhouse is such an inspiration to me and I was beyond honoured to be able to write about her art. Her work motivates me to experiment with my own artwork more and to push myself to use less conventional materials.” CHANTAL JUNG CHOICE: SHIRLEY MOORHOUSE PAGE 20

CASS GARDINER SHAPE-SHIFTING: COUZYN VAN HEUVELEN PAGE 32

“When making Beaded Lure (2015), van Heuvelen thought of adding glass beads to a traditional fishing hook, imagining a fish might find them appealing. My great-aunt used to tell me we had a responsibility as First Nations people to be good relatives to all our relations, whether they are in the water, air or sky. van Heuvelen’s consideration of providing art not just to us gallery-goers but also to the fish in the ocean has me reexamining what this relationship means—for why wouldn’t an Arctic char appreciate good art?”

This issue’s contributor illustrations are by Malaya Kisa-Knickelbein Malaya Kisa-Knickelbein is an emerging digital artist, jeweller and tattoo artist based in Iqaluit, NU. Using smooth dark lines, Kisa-Knickelbein illustrates everything from stylized portraits to sealskins stretching in the open air, which they share with friends and family on their social media platforms.

Visit her IAQ profile at inuitartfoundation.org/malaya-kisa-knickelbein Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

COVER SPOTLIGHT

JESSICA WINTERS TRIBUTE: NELLIE WINTERS PAGE 70

“Despite attending residential school and being forced to relocate south, my grandmother Nellie Winters has passed down her creativity and traditional knowledge to many of her 11 children and generations of grandchildren.”

Couzyn van Heuvelen

This assignment demonstrated the strong sense of connectedness between people, communities and culture across Inuit Nunangat.” “As a settler living in Iqaluit, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the size and remoteness of Nunavut. This assignment demonstrated the strong sense of connectedness between people, communities and culture across Inuit Nunangat. I had a good laugh when Lorna (who I interviewed in Kangiqliniq, NU) told me William Tagoona (who I interviewed in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC) grew up across the street from her! I am often comforted by reminders like this.”

COVER SPOTLIGHT Couzyn van Heuvelen is a sculptor and installation artist who experiments with size and perspective, creating works of unexpected scale. By making big things little and little things big, the meaning of simple everyday objects morphs, begging us to ask: does the size of something equate to its value and importance? van Heuvelen’s penchant for sizable works in particular has led to several projects in the public sphere including Arctic Char Steaks (2021), exhibited as part of from the earth we grow (2021–22) at the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington. Located close to van Heuvelen’s studio in southern Ontario, this installation provided a rare opportunity for the artist to watch his work evolve in situ as the steel forms patinaed. The work is a reflection on food access and security for Inuit in the North as well as those living in the South—particularly during a time of restricted travel when country food became even more scarce. Constructed from 350-pound raw six-inch steel plates, Arctic Char Steaks makes the ephemeral monumental.

CORINNE DUNPHY LEGACY: INUKTUT ON THE AIRWAVES PAGE 50

Couzyn van Heuvelen — Arctic Char Steaks (detail) 2021 Steel 27.9 × 45.7 × 15.2 cm

Check out this issue’s artists at inuitartfoundation.org/profiles Mass

COURTESY VISUAL ARTS CENTRE OF CLARINGTON PHOTO LAURA FINDLAY © THE ARTIST

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THANK YOU

Donors make all the difference IAF Tunisijut Circle

$100,000+ RBC Foundation

With annual gifts of $1,000 or more, this incredibly dedicated group provides critical support to connect artists with opportunities and make an extraordinary impact.

$25,000–$49,999 Judith DesBrisay Willmott Bruce Hunter Foundation Power Corporation of Canada

$5,000–$9,999 Rene Balcer and Carolyn Hsu-Balcer Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron Susan M. Carter Andrew Chodos Lyyli Elliot and two anonymous donors

$10,000–$24,999 Bruce Bailey, in honour of Pat Feheley Colourgenics Peter Goring Erik Haites The Herb and Cece Schreiber Foundation

IAF Taqqitamaat Tunisijut Circle The Taqqitamaat Tunisijut Circle is a special group of donors who give monthly to sustain the IAF and create opportunities for artists.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Amy Adams Lea Algar-Moscoe Mary Anglim Andrea Arnold Stephen Baker Vincent and Barbara Barresi Molly Blyth Robbin Bond Christopher Bredt and Jamie Cameron Tobi Bruce Catherine Campbell Sue Carter Claudia Christian Catherine Dean Rosemary Delli Zuani

Monthly supporter Multi-year pledge supporter Endowment supporter Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award supporter Inuit Art Quarterly supporter IAQ Profiles supporter Artist Services supporter

David and Liz Macdonald Joram Piatigorsky Paul Pizzolante John and Joyce Price Valerie and Hunter Thompson

$2,500–$4,999 Kristiina Alariaq, Huit Huit Tours Ltd. capedorset-inuitart.com Patricia and Donald Dodds Eleanor Erikson Pat Feheley Janice Gonsalves Inuit Art Society Hesty Leibtag

$1,000–$2,499 Ameriprise Financial Judy Banning Vincent and Barbara Barresi Jordy Bell and Stephen Jacoby The Honourable Patricia Bovey Shary Boyle Elise Brais Ben Caesar Gabrielle Campbell New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Geoffrey E. Clark and Martha Fuller Clark Fund

Celia Denov Emmanuelle A. Desrochers Hal Dietz Patricia and Donald Dodds Kate Doorly Sophie Dorais Mathieu Doucette Melanie Egan Leslie E. Eisenberg Lynn Feasey Kashtin Fitzsimons Maxime Fortin Lisa Frenette Britt Gallpen and Travis Vakenti Kik and Si Gilman Anik Glaude

Dr. Andrew Gotowiec Linda Grussani Barbara Hale Andrea Hamilton Sari Hannila, in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Inuit survivors, and the artists who tell Inuit stories ᓇᑯᕐᒦᒃ Celia Harte Lisa R. Hartman Shawn Hassell Dianne Hayman Bryan Hellwig Brittany Holliss Amy Jenkins

Fall 2022

THANK YOU

The Ikajuqtiit Circle changes lives all year long. Members of the Ikajuqtiit Circle—those who help—are caring donors who protect and nurture the Inuit art community. As Ikajuqtiit Circle members, you provide opportunities for artists to explore their practices, learn new skills and grow. You raise global awareness and appreciation of Inuit art. The generous Ikajuqtiit Circle members listed on these pages make all this and more possible. Your support is especially critical now in these uncertain times. Thank you! Gifts listed here were made between June 30, 2021 and June 30, 2022.

Cosentino Emily Deming Paul and Mary Dailey Desmarais Marian Dodds, in honour of Dedie Dodds Arthur Drache CM, QC and Judy Young Drache DUCA, in honour of Frits Albert Begemann’s legacy, in tribute to his passion for Inuit art Jon and Val Eliassen Fath Group/O’Hanlon Paving Ltd. Robert and Karlen Fellows Dave Forrest Peter Gillespie, in memory of Lyn Solomon-Gillespie, on behalf of The Solomon and Gillespie Fund Susan Hawkins

Carol Heppenstall Jackman Foundation Rawlson King Charles Kingsley Elske and Jim Kofman Katarina Kupca The William and Shirley Lakey Family Fund at Edmonton Community Foundation Barbara Legowski Ann and Michael Lesk Kathleen Lippa Maija M. Lutz and Peter A. Tassia MacDonald Griffin Charitable Foundation Christie MacInnes Susan Marrier John McCaig Alison and Bruce McDonald

Patricia McKeown Shannon Norberg and Jarvis Hall Susan Ollila Danielle Ouimet and Paul Harper Ann Posen, in honour of David Braidberg Andrew and Valerie Pringle Shirley Richardson Sanford Riley Frances E. Scheidel Melanie and Michael Southern David Sproule, in memory of Robin Mercer-Sproule and Jean Katherine Sproule Marie-Josée Therrien Barbara Turner Gail Vanstone Jaan Whitehead

Cathy and David Wilkes Susan Wortzman and Glenn Smith Norman Zepp and Judith Varga and three anonymous donors [3 ]

Rozanne Junker Rawlson King M.A. Konantz Katarina Kupca Martina Landry Nancy and Terry Lee Rebecca Lee Mike and Cindy MacMillan Samia Madwar, in honour of Hazar Shawaf Michael Martens, in memory of Miriam Bordofsky Roxanne McCaig Kathleen and Brian Metcalf Elizabeth Mitchell and Stephen Lloyd

Stephen Morris, in memory of Aqjangayuk Shaa Rachel O’Neill Dawn Owen Clifford Papke Aarohi Patel Kara Pearce Ann Posen, in honour of David Braidberg David Pride Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart David and Robin Procida Abdul Rahim Yeung Eva Riis-Culver Margerit Roger

Bruno Savoie Leslie Saxon West Joanne Schmidt, in loving memory of Gail Schmidt Yu Song Michael and Melanie Southern Joyce and Fred Sparling Charmaine Spencer David Sproule, in memory of Robin Mercer-Sproule and Jean Katherine Sproule Suncor Energy Jacek Szulc Jay and Deborah Thomson Emilie Tremblay

Gail Vanstone Nicholas Wattson Gord and Laurie Webster Claude M. Weil, in honour of Jim Shirley Elka Weinstein Kim Wiebe and Aubrey Margolis Jayne Wilkinson Susan Wortzman and Glenn Smith and seven anonymous donors.

Illannarijaujut Tunngavinngmit $500–$999 James and Marjorie Abel, in honour of Xanthipi Abel Carole Ahmad and family Eleanor Allgood Dr. Jim Bader and Merri Van Dyke Devony Baugh

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO SUPPORT ARTISTS, PLEASE CONTACT US AT 647-498-7717 OR VISIT US ONLINE AT INUITARTFOUNDATION.ORG. AS A REGISTERED CHARITY IN CANADA (#121033724RR001) AND THE UNITED STATES (#980140282), THE IAF WELCOMES DONATIONS, SPONSORSHIPS, LEGACY GIFTS AND IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS.

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COURTESY THE ARTIST

Marc Bendick Jr. and Mary Lou Egan Jean Blane Rev. Gary Boratto Tobi Bruce Stewart and Lissy Bryan Stephen Bulger and Catherine Lash Jamie Cameron and Chris Bredt, in honour of Frits and Wilhelmina Begemann Catherine Campbell Clive and Mary Clark Dr. Yvonne C. Condell David Deisley Hal Dietz Harald Finkler and Nadine Nickner Maxime Fortin Alain Fournier Carol Gray Linda Grussani

Barry Pottle is a photographer originally from Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, NL, and now living in Ottawa, ON. Pottle was a 2021 Indigenous Visual Artist Materials grant recipient and has graced the pages of some of the Inuit Art Quarterly’s seminal issues—including the Fall 2017 Anniversary Issue and the Fall 2015 Nunatsiavut! Special Issue. Through his photography, Pottle connects with the greater Inuit community and bridges the gap between traditional culture and contemporary ways of life.

Cary Hart Dianne Hayman Molly K. Heines and Thomas J. Moloney Bryan Hellwig Frederick Hooper Roger and Margaret Horton Dale Horwitz Chuck Hudson Dr. Heather Igloliorte and Matthew Brulotte Louis Jungheim, in memory of Floyd Kuptana Dwaine and Leslie King Lori Labatt Simon Lappi Dr. Ellen Lehman and Charles Kennel Val K. Lem Michael Martens, in memory of Miriam Bordofsky Keith Martin and Jackie Hatherly-Martin

Mireille Menard Kathleen and Brian Metcalf James Miller Kathryn C. Minard Elizabeth Mitchell and Stephen Lloyd Nancy Moore Allan Newell Suzanne O’Hara Lee and Sharon Oberlander Dawn Owen Martin Pâquet Alysa Procida and Kevin Stewart Leslie Reid Wendy Rittenhouse Prof. Nicholas A. Robinson Margerit Roger Susan Rowley Kassie Ruth Paula Santrach Celine Saucier Harriet Stairs

Amalia Steinberg, in honour of Jeri Ah-Be-Hill Tom Suber and Cary Griffin Suncor Energy George Szabo Jay and Deborah Thomson Carol Thrun Ann and Wayne Tompkins Dr. Joel Umlas Peg and Peter Van Brunt Terry Vatrt Jonathan and Katya Weisz The Wente Family Kim Wiebe and Aubrey Margolis Craig Wilbanks and Monty Kehl Zynga and thirteen anonymous donors [3 , 4 , 4 ]

LEFT

Barry Pottle delivers an artist’s talk at the Art Gallery of Hamilton on the occasion of his solo exhibition Barry Pottle: The Awareness Series (2017–18). In this series, first published in the IAQ’s 2015 special issue Nunatsiavut!, Pottle probes the fraught history of the federally imposed disc number system. These images were also the basis for a successful solo commercial exhibition in 2017. COURTESY ART GALLERY OF HAMILTON

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

THANK YOU

My relationship with the IAF goes back to the early 1990s when I worked in arts administration as a summer student. That time was pivotal in helping me understand the art world. Later, when I started my career as an artist, being featured in the IAQ really helped to get my name out and enabled curators and collectors to find my work. Working with the IAF has helped me grow personally and professionally and it remains a beacon of support for myself and countless other Inuit artists.” BARRY POTTLE

$250–$499 James and Marjorie Abel, in memory of Richard E. Winslow III Amy Adams Lea Algar-Moscoe Michelle Allen Beatriz Alvarez Mary Anglim Birgit Både Stephen Baker Brian and Carol Belchamber Jurg and Christel Bieri Woody Brown and Christa Ouimet Margaret Bursaw, in memory of John Maounis John and Elaine Butcher Denise Cargill Sue Carter Raymond and Charlene Thacker Currie

Celia Denov Nadine Di Monte and Michael Boland Fei Disbrow DK John Domsy Kate Doorly Sophie Dorais Nathalie Ducamp Andy Fallas Lisa Frenette Sally and Einar Gall Britt Gallpen and Travis Vakenti Peter and Deirdre Gardner Mary and Ian Glen Peter Gold and Athalie Joy Dr. Andrew Gotowiec Dave Haber and Dominique Ritter Andrea Hamilton

Sari Hannila, in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Inuit survivors, and the artists who tell Inuit stories ᓇᑯᕐᒦᒃ Celia Harte Ainslie Harvey Shawn Hassell Anne Hearn Laurie Herd Debby and Brian Hirsch Joanne Hommik Melinda Josie Rozanne Junker Carola Kaegi Sonya Kelliher-Combs Nancy Keppelman and Michael Smerza Dr. P Koppinen Mary Kostman Carolyn Lawson Nancy and Terry Lee

Haidee Smith Lefebvre Barbara Legowski and Lewis Auerbach Kenneth R. Lister Marie Loyer Simone Ludlow, on behalf of Max and Karl Crain Roxanne McCaig Tess and Duncan McLean, in memory of Terry Ryan Robert Michaud Charles Moss and Dee Fenner Linda Netten Michael and Brenda Noone Donna and Hal Olsen Clifford Papke Alex Pappas and Ann Maners Bonnie E. Park Maria Parsons Aarohi Patel Kara Pearce Pauline Provencher

RIGHT

Barry Pottle examines the realities of living outside of Nunatsiavut as an urban Inuk in his 2015 Silatani Series. These photographs, created between 2008 and 2013, comment on issues of displacement, food security and the challenges to fostering Inuit communities outside of the North. Works from this feature were included in the landmark touring exhibition SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut (2015–19). © INUIT ART FOUNDATION

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COURTESY ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO PHOTO DEAN TOMLINSON

Katherine Quatermass, in honour of Love and Loss: Tales from Imagined Lands Crowdfunder Abdul Rahim Yeung Jim and Shelley Renner Eva Riis-Culver Bruce Roberts Leslie Roden-Foreman and Michael Foreman Kerstin Roger Louise Rolingher, in memory of Dr. Ernest Reinhold, one of the founders of the Inuit Art Enthusiasts of Edmonton Charlie Rubin Leslie Saxon West Joanne Schmidt, in loving memory of Gail Schmidt Mark Shiner Pat Sparrer Charmaine Spencer

Artist, curator and writer Taqralik Partridge has been an advocate for Inuit artists for more than 20 years, championing the work of emerging and established artists through exhibitions, writing and artistic collaborations. Partridge first worked with the IAF as a contributor to the IAQ with her 2001 article “Throatsinging: More Than a Game.” In the years since, she has been featured as a performer, visual artist and author, and in 2019 she was appointed the IAQ’s inaugural Editor-at-Large. Today, she is the Director of the Nordic Lab at SAW Gallery in Ottawa, ON.

H. Mary Balint Deborah Bates Heather M. Beecroft Catherine Birt Marjorie Blankstein Molly Blyth Katharine Bocking Robbin Bond Anne Borchardt, in memory of Claus Borchardt Stephen and Hazel Borys Karen Bradfield Jennifer Brown Kaaren and Julian Brown Ruth Brown Dorothy Caldwell and William Woods Mary F. Campbell John Carr Paul E. Cawein Mark Cheetham David S. Cherepacha

Sara Stasiuk Steinbrueck Native Gallery Colleen Suche Emilie Tremblay Dr. Anne Vagi Galerie D’art Vincent Nicholas Wattson Gail Wylie and Dave Wright Dallas D Young and three anonymous donors [1 , 1 ] $100–$249 Jane and Wallace Altes Reneltta Arluk, in honour of Carver Kalluk Kirby Andrea Arnold Caroline Arpin Anne-Claude Bacon Catherine Badke Donald Badke, in memory of Anne Badke

Madeleine Colaço Carol A. Cole Geraldine and Jeremy Cole Jill Coles Peter Coolican Charles and Arline Crockford Ruby Cruz Fred and Mary Cutler George Dark Catherine Dean Anne-Marie Delaunay-Danizio Rosemary Delli Zuani Wilfrid Denis Department of Unusual Certainties Emmanuelle A. Desrochers Margaret Dimond Chris Dos Santos Mathieu Doucette François Dumaine Melanie Egan Leslie E. Eisenberg

LEFT

Taqralik Partridge made her IAQ debut in the Winter 2001 issue with her Feature “Throatsinging: More Than a Game.” Published shortly after Partridge organized the first-ever Inuit Throatsingers’ Gathering on behalf of the Avataq Cultural Institute, her article explores the nuances of kattajjaq, noting that “increasingly, performing artists are emerging as an important vehicle to convey the world view of Inuit.” In the ensuing years, Partridge has established herself as an accomplished performer in her own right as well as an advocate for fellow artists. © INUIT ART FOUNDATION

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

THANK YOU

I think we’re very lucky as Inuit artists in Canada to have the IAF to advocate for us. In particular the IAQ has had a big impact on my career—being seen and then making connections because of that. It has an impact on all the artists that are included. My perspective is that Inuit artists are really on the rise; it’s a special moment. The IAQ is a part of this ecosystem. The magazine is helping to build it and it’s also documenting what’s being built. It’s a catalyst in that way.” TAQRALIK PARTRIDGE

Keith R. Evans QC Lynn Feasey Maegan Fidelino Robin Field Gustel Fischer Kashtin Fitzsimons Chun Hoong Fong Melanie Foubert Joana Fraga Ed Friedman Friend of Inuit Artists JoAnne and Richard Fuerst Susan and David Gallpen Glenn Gear Kik and Si Gilman Anik Glaude Eddie Goldstein Deborah D. Gordon Karen and George Gorsline Patricia Grattan Kristine Greenaway Jill Greenberg

Allan Hughes Mike Hurry Jacqueline Hynes, Ph.D. Noorlizan Ibrahim Linda and James Igloliorte Jeannette Jackson-Thompson, in memory of Richard C. Thompson Faye Jacobs Drs. Laurence and Katherine Jacobs Amy Jenkins Chris Jubien Kevin and Holly Kaminska, in memory of Claus Borchardt John and Johanna Kassenaar Jennipher and Jamie Kean, on behalf of Elizabeth O’Grady Anne Kearns Heather Keith Cathy Kirkpatrick

Jill Grief Lizzie Haines Barbara Hale Patt Hall Kathryn Hanna Tekla Harms Lisa R. Hartman Clive Harvey Ian Harvey Tatiana Harvey Sara Hassan, in memory of Sharif Maher Hassan Janet Heagle, in memory of Fritz Begeman K.E. Heller-McRoberts Rick Hiebert, in honour of Renzo Fernandez’s 40th Birthday Charles Hilton, Sculptor Brittany Holliss David Homan Warren Howard

Bryan Klein A.B. Kliefoth, MD Jo-Ann Kolmes M.A. Konantz Jerry and Gail Korpan Larry and Joyce Lacroix Martina Landry Dr. Virginia Lavin Huguette Le Gall Rebecca Lee Wynne and William Lee Gordon Leggett Jamie Lewis Julie L’Heureux Daryl and Marilyn Logan Denis Longchamps Bob Ludwig and Susan Baum Tanya Lukin-Linklater Peter Lyman Mike and Cindy MacMillan Catherine Madsen

RIGHT

Taqralik Partridge curated ᐊᓚᒃᑳᔪᑦ Alakkaajut Many Things Appear (2021–22), the inaugural exhibition for the Nordic Lab, SAW Gallery’s Indigenous-led research and production space. The exhibition featured works by Sissel M. Bergh, Maureen Gruben and Sonya Kelliher-Combs. In 2020, Gruben and Kelliher-Combs participated in the IAF’s Circumpolar Exchange program. Pictured left to right - Maureen Gruben, Sissel M. Bergh, Sonya Kelliher-Combs and Taqralik Partridge. COURTESY JASON ST-LAURENT

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THANK YOU

COURTESY RAWLSON KING

Samia Madwar, in honour of Hazar Shawaf Peter Malkin Dr. Neil and Elaine Margolis Jim and Mary Alice Mayerle Michelle McGeough Elizabeth McKeown G. Lester and Phyllis McKinnon Brian McLeod Heather McNab Joanna Miazga Yves Morneau Stephen Morris, in memory of Aqjangayuk Shaa Cathy Moser and Jeff Itzkow David Muir Sophia Muylwyk My Art Syndicate Nahanni and Morea Suzanne F. Nash Ella Nathanael and Chris Alkiewicz, in memory of Janet Wallace Ley Aliide Naylor, in memory of Lyyli Elliott Gary Nelson Lou Nelson Rachel O’Neill Louisa O’Reilly Marina Oeler

Rawlson King was elected the first-ever Black city councillor in a historic by-election held April 2019 in the City of Ottawa. An avid reader of Inuit Art Quarterly since 1997, King has been a longtime advocate for Inuit artistic expression and cultural sovereignty. An original drawing by Annie Pootoogook (1969–2016) holds pride of place in his office and in 2021 he supported a motion to rename Sandy Hill Park in Pootoogook’s name. King has been part of IAF’s Illannarijaujut Tunngavinngmit since 2017, supporting both the Inuit Art Quarterly and the Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award.

Douglas Palmerton Penny Pattinson Kate Permut Father Colin Peterson Mimi Philippe Ed and Johannes Pien Richard and Annette Pivnick LuAnn and William Polk David Pride David and Robin Procida Robert Procida Mickey Ranalli Blaine Rapp, in memory of Helen Rapp Bayard D. Rea Dr. Timothy W. Reinig Marcia Rioux Greg Rogers, in honour of the great work done by the Igloo Tag program Anita Romaniuk Barry Rosenberg The Ryan Family Judith Rycus Lynne B. Sagalyn J. Salkowitz, DMD Dr. Jinder Sall Wally and Lenore Sapach Bruno Savoie Iris Schweiger

Jeffrey Seidman Mari Shantz Janet and Benjamin Shute, Jr. Scenery Slater Jean-Claude Sommier Yu Song Richard Sourkes Joyce and Fred Sparling Arlene Stecenko Stephen Bulger Gallery Clarence Stonefish Jacek Szulc Dr. Charles Haskell Tator Robert C. and Judith Toll Laurie Tretina Robert and Audrey Vandewater Louise and James Vesper Jon Vickery Voyages Carole Gobeil Travel Garnet Ward Brenda and Robert Watson John Weber, in memory of Mary MacDonald Gord and Laurie Webster Claude M. Weil, in honour of Jim Shirley Elka Weinstein Karen Westrell Scott B. White Amanda Whitney

Thank you to this special group of donors who have committed to creating impactful opportunities for artists and supporting Inuit art over the long term by pledging to give annually for years to come.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Garland Austin Withers Daphne Wright Mark and Margie Zivin and twenty anonymous donors [3 , 3 , 7 , 4 ] Up to $99 Ariell Ahearn-Ligham Susan Anthony Beverly Biderman Kurt Biedermann Vicki Boutin Fiona Buchan-Corey David Burns Kevin Burns Jonathan Bursaw, in memory of John Maounis Jocelyn Bussieres Monica Bye Nilsen, love from Sápmi Ginger Carlson Jim and Cindy Carter Shelley Chochinov Claudia Christian Cobalt Art Gallery J. De Vincenzo Lisa Deanne Smith Paulette Dennis Hilary Dickson Maegan Didden

Eleanor Erickson Goring Family Foundation Joram Piatigorsky Herb and Cece Schreiber Foundation Craig Wilbanks and Monty Kehl

Fall 2022

THANK YOU

If we are serious about supporting arts and culture and supporting the cultural and artistic sovereignty of Inuit, it’s important that there are mechanisms in place that are able to do so. The only way that can continue is if there is strong support from the community and organizations like the IAF. I donate to support Inuit artists in a meaningful way because I appreciate the incredible talent, aesthetic beauty and ingenuity that is evident in Inuit art.” RAWLSON KING

Tracey Doherty, in memory of William Robert Mesher Kristin Dowell Jane Ely Pat English Ian Ferrier Kathryn Fournier Pamela Fratti Paula Frisch Frank Gielen Pernille Goodbrand Dara Gordon, in honour of Morgan and Richard Zigler whose lives are forever bound together by their love for and connection to the arts, education and the Arctic Birgitte Granofsky Susan C. Griswold Delan Hamasoor Alissa Hamilton Beatrice Hanson Alyson Hardwick, in honour of Delphine Shiwak Anna Holmes Albert Holthuis Andrew Hubbertz Elizabeth Hutchinson Phillip Innes Erika Janik

Celina Jeffery Anne-Remy Jones Jeannette Jonker Anne Louise Kelly Mary Lawrence Breinig Gretchen Lawrie Teresa Leon Dingwell Lexo Anastasia Lintner Marion Lord Suzie MacMillian, in honour of Mom and Dad Sophie Mailloux Wendy and Michael Main Geraldine and Peter Marshall Michael Massie Graham Mastersmith William Mather David and Maida Maxham Patrick McLean Golda and Martin Mendelsohn Mary Jane Mikkelsen Robert Muller Heather Murdock Susan Newlove Paul Newman Lena Nicholls Marina Noack Rob Norquay Peter Noteboom

Keitrah Oakley Carole Ouimet, in honour of Christa Ouimet Katie Pearl Clodine Portugais Steve Potocny and Anne Milochik Danielle Rand Isabelle Ranger Sharlene Rankin Mark Rieger Marilyn Robinson Enid Rokaw Robert Rosenbaum Richard and Yvonne Rothenberg Susan H. Rountree Carol-Ann Ryan Donna Saunders Janet Savard Kathryn Scott Patricia Scott Doug Selley Uma Selvarajah Paul Shackel and Barbara Little Cindy Skrukwa Jan Carol Houston Smith Gregory Sonek Ann Sprayregen Horace Suffredini

Take Two Software Sarah Taylor Karen Thorne-Stone Ian Trott Ukpik Inuit Art, on behalf of Alan Pinder Elizabeth Vadas Anne Van Burek Nancy Walkling, in memory of Frank Walkling Tiffany Wallace Jennifer White Mark and Margaret Whitley Michael Wiles Jayne Wilkinson Jennie Williams Fred Wurlitzer, M.D. and seventeen anonymous donors [1 , 4 , 5 , 1 ]

You can make the difference There are more than 13,000 Inuit artists working in Canada today. Many face barriers to making and showcasing their work, but all deserve the same opportunities other artists have for their voices to be heard and their work to be seen. By giving to the IAF, you help artists working across Inuit Nunangat and beyond connect to opportunities, have platforms for their work to be seen and build their careers. Celebrate the art you love and make a difference by donating today. Mass

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5 WORKS

Sanannguagaralaaq/Miniatures Ranging from the delicate to satisfyingly solid sculptures and jewellery, this selection of five works is impressive in the cutest possible terms.

Sabina Qunqnirq Anaittuq

Birds (1969)

Through intricately detailed carving and a touch of imagination, Sabina Qunqnirq Anaittuq creates a cozy scene of four little white owls gathered together in her piece, Birds. With their adorable tininess, the ivory birds beg for a closer look to appreciate their smooth and rounded bodies and perfectly placed eyes and beaks. Upon closer inspection, the rocky cliff they appear to be perched on reveals itself as a piece of caribou jawbone, speaking to Annaittuq’s

beautiful use of natural materials. This scene encapsulates the daily behaviours of birds perfectly, each one craning their necks in a different direction, perhaps in response to a nearby predator or maybe looking for the next tasty meal. Whatever they may be up to, they sure are a delight to watch. LISA FRENETTE

Associate Editor

Tytoosie Quvianaqtuliaq

Truck (1999) At less than four centimetres long, this tiny truck is smaller than my pinky finger. And yet despite its diminutive proportions, Tytoosie Quvianaqtuliaq has managed to flesh out the proportions of his automobile with details like the indent where the cab meets the top of the truck bed and the larger groove on the rear, which tells me this is a pickup truck, or maybe even a dump truck. Quvianaqtuliaq has produced a number of tiny vehicles like this, a miniature fleet that has travelled many kilometres to go from his home in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, to galleries in Toronto, ON. Definitely the Hot Wheels car I never knew I needed! JESSICA MACDONALD

LEFT

ABOVE

Tytoosie Quvianaqtuliaq — Truck 1999 Stone 1.3 × 3.8 × 1.3 cm

Sabina Qunqnirq Anaittuq — Birds 1969 Ivory and caribou jawbone 3.8 × 7.6 × 5.7 cm

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST

Associate Editor

Inuit Art Quarterly

OPPOSITE (ABOVE)

Tegan Voisey (The Littlest Inuksuk) — Snowmobile Studs 2022 Acrylic and UV resin 4.5 × 2.1 × 0.6 cm © THE ARTIST

GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT FINE ART COLLECTION COURTESY WAG-QAUMAJUQ © THE ARTIST

Fall 2022

5 WORKS

Snowmobile Studs (2022)

Untitled (c. 1974)

Tegan Voisey (The Littlest Inuksuk)

These miniature snowmobiles—stud earrings—made from acrylic and UV resin were created by Alberta-based artist Tegan Voisey, who produces under the moniker Designs by the Littlest Inuksuk. With a dedicated social media following, Voisey’s creations regularly sell the minute they hit my Instagram feed and these are no exception. Meticulously detailed and intricately shaped, it’s

Taamisa Thomassie Etok

difficult to believe these tiny glistening snow machines are a mere 4.5 centimetres long. A slight departure for Voisey from her beloved amautiit, uluit and fish earrings, this design celebrates the ubiquity of one of the North’s most iconic contemporary silhouettes. BRITT GALLPEN

Editorial Director

Taamisa Thomassie Etok’s Spirit (1974), standing just over eight centimetres tall, is carved from caribou antler. Etok created multiple spirit miniatures, but they are set apart by their distinctive facial expressions. The negative space and hollowed-out core allow light to shine through, creating a depth that is impressive for such a tiny object. I am drawn to the relationship between light and shadow and the details they call attention to, all the way to the circular shadow beneath the figure. I appreciate that, although small, Spirit is a multifaceted piece that is far from lacking in detail and originality.

Unknown Artist

Unknown Name (c. 1850s) Without a title, we do not have insight into the carver’s perspective, so we are left with our own imaginations. We can identify the subjects as otters thanks to their elongated bodies and little moustaches, but we can only guess at what the artist was thinking when they rendered these creatures out of ivory. Is the larger otter the parent to the pup? Is their small size a reference to otters’ slight stature, or is it the artist’s preferred carving style? Regardless, their scale asks the viewer to pay close attention, like a whisper piques the ears. It is unfortunate that we cannot give the artist their due credit, but not knowing the artist does not diminish the value of their artwork; it is cherished even if we never find out who they are.

ANYA JOHNSON

Legacy Inuit Artist Research Officer

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Unknown Artist — Unknown Name c. 1850s Ivory 8.9 × 5.7 cm COURTESY CISCO’S GALLERY, COEUR D’ALENE, ID © THE ARTIST

TIFFANY LARTER

Copy Editor Mass

ABOVE

Taamisa Thomassie Etok — Spirit c. 1974 Caribou antler 8.5 × 3.5 × 5 cm COURTESY AVATAQ CULTURAL CENTRE PHOTO ÉRIC FERLAND © THE ARTIST

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CHOICE

Victoria Grey The Famous Arctic Char

by Phebe Bentley

ABOVE

Victoria Grey — The Famous Arctic Char 2000 Stencil 47 × 53 cm COURTESY AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE PHOTO NORMAND BLOUIN © THE ARTIST

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

CHOICE

Since one of Grey’s favourite things—other than creating art—is fishing, it’s no wonder she chose a fish for one of her first prints; it makes sense to combine the things that bring you joy in life.

With countless masterpieces to choose from by talented artists all over Inuit Nunangat, the possibilities were a little overwhelming. Is it a coincidence that at first glance Victoria Grey’s print The Famous Arctic Char (2000) was pulling me in? The print depicts an iqaluppik, an Arctic char, in hues of green and teal encompassed by ripples caused by the fish moving freely through the water. This beautiful yet simple print tells a story about Grey: where she grew up, where she learned the artform and how pieces like this inspired the next generation of female artists. Growing up in Nunavik, QC, Grey, who is my relative, was one of the few female artists that I can remember. She’s known for her carvings, drawings, jewellery making and sewing. Today the multidisciplinary artist’s work can be found gracing the walls of many local and regional organizations and on the floors of some of the most high-traffic areas in Nunavik—the airports. Although Arctic char can be found all over Inuit Nunangat, I know that this particular type of Arctic char can only be found in Kangiqsuk, Nunavik, QC—where both Grey and I grew up. The month of July is peak fishing season in Misarvik, the local fishing spot, roughly 40 kilometres upriver from the community. I have had the privilege of reeling in this very fish myself on our ancestral lands. You can catch one

of these beauties on nearly every cast during the right time of year when the tide is low. Tourists from all over travel there to experience this one-of-a-kind fisher’s haven. The skin of the fish can vary but is usually white, deep green and blue— sometimes teal with specks of white, just as the print suggests. They are quite powerful; they have to be to swim in the strong currents in the Payne River, which flows into Ungava Bay. The flesh is a vibrant orange, mimicking the colors of sunsets that can only be found in the North. What really sets this fish apart is the sweet, buttery taste; Arctic char from other places just don’t compare. Since one of Grey’s favourite things—other than creating art— is fishing, it’s no wonder she chose a fish for one of her first prints; it makes sense to combine the things that bring you joy in life. This print was made in 2000, when Grey was part of an Inuit Art Foundation workshop where five lucky Nunavimmiut artists visited Kinngait Studios in Kinngait (Cape Dorset), NU, and famed Inuit artists shared their expertise on stencilling, stonecut techniques and lithography. Grey spent three insightful weeks in Kinngait learning the craft and creating her own masterpieces, among them this print. Just imagining the creative minds at work, sharing knowledge, stories and laughter and creating art, leaves me with feelings of nostalgia. Perhaps it reminds me

of learning traditional sewing techniques with my cousins, aunts and Elders in Nunavik. It conjures a sense of belonging and learning without worrying about being graded or judged, but a space to share, create, grow and learn from one another. Upon further reflection, I imagine the ripples in the water that surround the fish as all the various works of Grey; drawn in different lengths, sizes and directions, it’s as if they depict the disciplines and pieces she has worked on through her life. At the centre of it all is the artist herself, doing her own thing. Little did Grey know that the ripples she created with her art would make waves downstream. Today, female Nunavimmiut artists are flourishing and are in high demand and with good reason. I have no doubt that many of these artists were inspired by Grey, whether they realize it or not, like I was and as others will continue to be for generations to come. — Phebe Bentley is a seamstress, jeweller, aspiring writer, education consultant and treasurer. Based in Montreal, QC, Bentley creates pieces inspired by the nuna and Inuit culture. Outside of her art, education and women’s rights are some of her passions. She currently works for Kativik Ilisarniliriniq and serves as Treasurer of Saturviit Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik.

RIGHT

Victoria Grey and Qavavau Manumie, stencil instructor from Kinngait, Kinngait Studios, 2000; Victoria Grey stencilling Famous Arctic Char, Kinngait Studios, 2000 © INUIT ART FOUNDATION

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CHOICE

Shirley Moorhouse To Honour the Firekeepers

by Chantal Jung

ABOVE

Shirley Moorhouse — To Honour the Firekeepers (detail) 2020 Wallhanging and mixed media Dimensions variable ALL COURTESY WAG-QAUMAJUQ ALL PHOTOS DAVID LIPNOWSKI ALL © THE ARTIST

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

CHOICE

Inuit, such as the wild trout. The use of found technology in this diptych seems to purposefully emphasize how Labrador’s waters have also experienced an increase in human technological waste being consumed by fish and how Inuit populations are increasingly consuming toxins and microplastics. It is as though Moorhouse is trying to show me her distant memories of fishing with her family and how the trout are now affected by today’s technologies. The blue fish on the backdrop appear almost ghostlike in comparison to the white trout, disappearing in the cloudy waters. Moorhouse’s art is always an inspiration and motivation to me to be more engaged, to support Indigenous community-led actions to stop climate change and to show others how art can be a motivator for more critical action. The themes of Inuit identity, the importance of cultural continuity and its ties to the environment that Moorhouse has brought to this piece are thought-provoking. Her art evokes peaceful memories of living on the land and emphasizes the impacts of climate change on Inuit populations in Labrador. Honouring ancestral understandings of the environment contributes to sustainable ecosystem management and helps with the recovery of the impacted lands and waters. The future is held by the firekeepers who encourage us to embrace Inuit traditional knowledge.

Light thread woven effortlessly through black stroud fabric is foundational to the distinct and beautiful magic-like embroidery of Shirley Moorhouse. I remember seeing her dark textiles for the first time in the exhibition catalogue for SakKijâjuk: Art and Craft from Nunatsiavut (2017), where I was instantly drawn to her art and struck by its powerful influence even through pages in a book. Moorhouse’s diptych installation To Honour the Firekeepers (2020) is a statement piece that follows her signature light-on-dark style. The wallhanging on the left of the installation shows a family fishing underneath a floating mythical humanoid creature made from smoked caribou skin and beads. The ominous background, in contrast with the light beading and caribou skin, creates a dream-like sequence—perhaps a distant memory or reverie. The companion textile on the right features a CD and a large trout made from keyboard parts. Turquoise and grey textiles overlaid against the black background make the trout appear to swim through murky waters. A small red fire sits on a plinth in front. This work brings forward Moorhouse’s personal, spiritual and political stories in a very subtle way. The beads swirl around the cheering figures while the birds above their heads and the mythical creature create a scene of joy and excitement. In contrast, the fish are swimming in darker, clouded waters that don’t show as much movement. When I see the disturbed waters and use of electronic pieces in the right wallhanging, in contrast with the mythical creature’s watchful observation of the family on the left, it reminds me of the hydroelectric projects threatening the health of the Inuit populations in Labrador. Due to the Nalcor Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project and others like it, there have been elevated concentrations of methylmercury in the food ecosystems that have contaminated the fish of the area and thus impacted traditional food resources for

— Based in San Jose, California, US, Chantal Jung is a collage, video and film artist and zine creator who originally hails from Happy Valley–Goose Bay, NL. Jung has been featured as an artist and writer in multiple issues of the Inuit Art Quarterly and is a member of the zine collective Indigenous Honeys.

LEFT

Shirley Moorhouse — To Honour the Firekeepers (installation view) 2020 Wallhanging and mixed media Dimensions variable

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JUNE 15 TO DECEMBER 10 2022

Souvenir

solo exhibition at Onsite Gallery 199 Richmond St. W.

pi’tawita’iek: we go up river

outdoor mural at 100 McCaul St. As part of

ocadu.ca/onsite

Ketu’elmita’jik (They want to come home) as installed at Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, December 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019

With Additional Support From: Bill Morneau and Nancy McCain Foundation, and Partners in Art

ᓯᑯ ᕿᕐᓂᖅᓯᓯᒪᔪᖅ ᓕᐊᔅᓕ ᕇᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᕌᕗᑦ ᑲᐅᑐᖅ

Dark Ice

Leslie Reid and Robert Kautuk

Glaces obscures Leslie Reid et Robert Kautuk

ᐄᑉᐳ 23, 2022 - ᕖᕝᕗᐊᕆ 26, 2023 April 23, 2022 - February 26, 2023 23 avril 2022 - 26 février 2023 OAGGAO.CA

ARTISTS’ CORNER

Supporting Artists to Create and Experiment Since 2020, the IAF has recommended 22 artists for funding through the Indigenous Visual Artists Materials (IVAM) grant program, run by the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), for a total of $20,500 worth of opportunities for artists to create new works. Last year, funding from the program enabled photographer Katherine Takpannie to create a new series of 14 images titled Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ (2021). Takpannie’s evocative photographs capture both personal reflection and a compository view of Inuit experience while drawing attention to contemporary social and political issues. Shortly after receiving funding from IVAM, Takpannie received a 2020 Scotiabank New Generation Photography Award and was included in exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada and the 6th Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA). In this short interview, Takpannie shares how support from IVAM enabled her to stay connected to family, culture and homeland during the pandemic through the creation of new works.

IAQ: As you know, this particular funding stream—IVAM—is really meant to be as open-ended and flexible for artists as possible. You applied with a very specific project in mind. Could you speak a bit more about the series? KATHERINE TAKPANNIE: My proposal was for a series called Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ that I had been wanting to create. When I attended Nunavut Sivuniksavut, I had learned so much history. The history class was one of my favourites. I’ve always been curious about our beliefs, pre-colonization and pre-Christianity, as well as about Sedna. There was a line in Tanya Tagaq’s book Split Tooth (2018), where she wrote, “What will Sedna do when she hears of the seismic testing?” Mixing that Inuit history with the contemporary issues we face—that was the whole driving force behind the series. I was fascinated with that question. IAQ: And you were working on this project in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns, is that right? ABOVE

Katherine Takpannie’s series Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ (2021) exhibited at the 6th Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA), Montreal, QC COURTESY BACA © THE ARTIST

Inuit Art Quarterly

KATHERINE TAKPANNIE: Working on this series during the pandemic was actually really helpful for my mental health. It was really hard to be isolating all the time, away from those that you love and care

about—family, friends, the normal connections that we share. But connecting back to my culture and sharing it with others was very beneficial during that period. I was exploring the dichotomy of our societal values with the violent destruction of our homelands through resource extraction. I wanted to use the smoke grenades as part of the emotion, the feeling emitted from Sedna herself. The growing displeasure of that violent destruction—to make it tangible. IAQ: I understand these works have resonated with people. Could you tell us a little bit about what’s happened since? KATHERINE TAKPANNIE: The City of Ottawa has a direct purchase program and accompanying exhibition once a year. The city purchased Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ #9 (2021) for the City of Ottawa Art Collection and included it in the exhibition Holding Pattern (2021–22). Works from the series were included in the exhibition Land Back curated by Michael Patten as part of the 6th Contemporary Native Art Biennial (BACA) in Montreal, QC. The Land Back movement aims to restore governance and stewardship over our territories for a sustainable future. So they felt the Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ pieces fit perfectly into that. And I will be having a solo exhibit coming

Fall 2022

ARTISTS’ CORNER

Without dedicated funding for Inuit artists we get pushed to the side. It’s harder to compete in those pools just because of the numbers. Without this funding, this series wouldn’t have been created.” up this September with Olga Korper Gallery in which the series will also be featured. IAQ: Congratulations! That must be so encouraging to see audiences respond to the work in that way. Why do you think this sort of dedicated funding— that invites artists to make whatever they choose to make, whether it’s purchasing supplies or working on a particular project—is important? KATHERINE TAKPANNIE: Applying to grants has been a newer process for me. I have only applied for a handful, IVAM included. It’s an experience that can be tedious and sometimes confusing. But it’s extremely worthwhile. And it has been extremely valuable in assisting me in creating art and then in sharing that art as well. Demographically, Inuit are a smaller group in comparison to First Nations and Métis artists.

That’s just demographics. Without dedicated funding for Inuit artists we get pushed to the side. It’s harder to compete in those pools just because of the numbers. Without this funding, this series wouldn’t have been created. IAQ: One final question for you: if you were speaking to an early career Inuk artist who had never applied for funding, and who was thinking about applying for funding to do something like this, what would you tell them?

ABOVE

Katherine Takpannie — Sedna ᓴᓐᓇ #9 2021 Digital photograph COURTESY OLGA KORPER GALLERY © THE ARTIST

KATHERINE TAKPANNIE: Apply immediately, if not sooner! The very first time I applied for funding, I had someone—another Indigenous artist— mentor me, who basically walked me through the entire application. Ask for help if you need it. But it’s so beneficial, definitely go for it.

— IVAM funding supports Ontario-based Inuit, First Nations and Métis artists working in the visual arts, crafts or traditional/customary Indigenous art forms to create artwork. For the past three years the IAF has acted as a third-party recommender to promote and administer IVAM on behalf of the OAC, ensuring that Inuit artists living and working across Ontario are aware of and have access to this program. The deadline for this year’s IVAM funding is December 9, 2022.

Learn more at inuitartfoundation.org/IVAM Mass

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PROFILE

Olivia (Akeeshoo) Chislett

by Alicia Bojkov

Determined to pursue as many forms of artistic media as possible, Iqaluit, NU–based multimedia artist Olivia (Akeeshoo) Chislett explores drawing and throat singing as a means of realizing the more abstract feelings she has about her Inuk background. Through her command of form, line and colour, Chislett distills the myriad of emotions that she feels as a self-identified “mixed Inuk.” As a child, Chislett found herself drawn to the villains and monsters in popular culture, from science experiments gone wrong to prisoners, because they were typically portrayed as non-conforming, misunderstood queer characters who did not embody Western beauty standards. This, in tandem with the artist’s interest in the depiction of Inuit mythology, particularly the illustrations of mahahaas and qalupaliit by Babah Kalluk in Taiksumani: Inuit Myths and Legends (2004), led Chislett’s work to take on the Inuit Art Quarterly

perspective of the “bad guy.” As a neurodivergent queer person of colour who was bullied growing up, “I always felt for [the antagonists], because it was their situation that made them,” says Chislett. “Most of the time they are, in my opinion, justified in their anger, fear and outbursts.”1 Inky Cap (2022) depicts the complex identities of her monsters as the anthropomorphized mushroom takes on a sombre feminine form. The character is both obscure and alluring as the pendulous extremities of the mushrooms conceal the identity of what initially appears to be an elegant croquis. Although the final iterations of her work are digitally finessed, Chislett’s monsters are born on paper. “I feel a sense of control from drawing,” says Chislett, “because I have so many pent-up emotions, and I feel like people would see me differently if I were to act on them. Whenever 26

Fall 2022

PROFILE

Through her command of form, line and colour, Chislett distills the myriad of emotions that she feels as a self-identified “mixed Inuk.”

I’m feeling angry or sad or frustrated I can draw myself or my characters acting out—it feels cathartic.” Her process of establishing a concept on paper and then refining the drawings digitally is apparent in her latest comic book Stopping By Woods, published by Hecate Press. The comic tells the story of Emris, a young boy who reveals himself to be a monster when a friend injures themself on a hiking trip. Released this June, the 12-page publication displays delicate strokes of pencil drawing juxtaposed with blocks of graphic pastel colours—a metaphor of sorts for the societally imposed dichotomy of the gentle monster. In contrast to the monster’s harrowing fangs and skeletal exterior, swaths of peach and turquoise mirror his sensitive interior, prone to bruising yet irrepressible. The result is a beautiful lesson in compassion as the characters learn to embrace their differences. The learning process has been central to Chislett’s artistic growth. Encounters with artists in daycare and elementary school taught her that careers in throat singing and drawing were possible. Chislett began her own journey teaching throat singing to fellow students at the age of 12. Today she continues to teach throat singing at Mass

a local high school, citing the passion held by teenagers as a driving force in art “no matter the medium.” Continuing her survey of diverse art forms, Chislett participated in the 2021 National Fur Design Competition in which her submission of a sealskin crop top, coordinating skirt and facemask was named one of 12 winning designs. As part of her award, Chislett is set to travel to Toronto Metropolitan University to participate in a weekend-long fur design intensive. Following the success of her first solo comic, Chislett’s next pursuit is a longer comic narrative which will undoubtedly feature new amiable and empathetic monsters. — Alicia Bojkov is a German-Canadian art historian whose scholarship focuses on fin de siècle and early twentieth-century photography. Bojkov holds a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Toronto and is currently the Collection Manager and Curatorial Assistant at Corkin Gallery in Toronto’s Distillery District. This Profile was made possible through support from RBC Emerging Artists. 27

NOTES 1

All quotes Olivia (Akeeshoo) Chislett, interview with Alicia Bojkov, August 2022.

OPPOSITE

Olivia (Akeeshoo) Chislett — Stopping By Woods (interior spread) 2022 Risograph-printed comic book COURTESY HECATE PRESS © THE ARTIST

ABOVE (LEFT)

Inky Cap 2022 Digital drawing © THE ARTIST

ABOVE (RIGHT)

Chislett’s winning designs for the 2021 National Fur Design Competition. Digital drawing © THE ARTIST

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July 2 – Oct. 30, 2022

Home to the Art of Canada An Agency of the Government of Ontario

ON VIEW OCTOBER 1—DECEMBER 31, 2022

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Networks of Global Indigeneity MAJOR DONOR

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Couzyn van Heuvelen, Avataq, 2016. Installation view: Bait, Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, 2021. Photo: Roger Smith.

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OPPOSITE (FAR LEFT)

Pat Feheley and Pauta Saila in Kinngait, 1969 OPPOSITE (CENTRE LEFT)

Pat Feheley and M.F. (Budd) Feheley, Iglulik, 1975

OPPOSITE (CENTRE RIGHT)

OPPOSITE (FAR RIGHT)

Annie Pootoogook — Sobey Awards 2006 Coloured pencil and ink 57.5 × 76.5 cm

Shuvinai Ashoona and John Noestheden — Earth and Sky 2008 Vinyl reproduction 365.8 × 5120.6 cm

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS © THE ARTISTS

BELOW (FAR LEFT)

Pat Feheley and Tim Pitsiulak at Art Toronto, 2011 BELOW (CENTRE LEFT)

Feheley Fine Arts at its new address, 65 George Street, Toronto, ON

BELOW (CENTRE RIGHT)

BELOW (FAR RIGHT)

Kenojuak Ashevak — Two Fish 2012 Ink 121.9 × 243.8 cm

Photo of Pat Feheley COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS

REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST

2012 The gallery continues to grow and moves to a bigger location at 65 George Street. The opening exhibition, Dorset Large, featured a selection of the large-scale drawings coming from Kinngait Studios.

2020 Art Toronto 2020 Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory performs virtually from her home in Iqaluit, NU, for FFA during Art Toronto 2020, the first-ever virtual fair during a pandemic. The performance exemplifies the gallery’s commitment to a broad scope of media, including performance art, new media and photography by Inuit artists.

2014 2011 Art Toronto 2011 Tim Pitsiulak travels south to attend Art Toronto, where his work was featured in the FFA booth. Pitsiulak’s major drawings Spring Landscape (2011) and Ski-doo on Canoe (2011) were later acquired by the National Gallery of Canada.

Kenojuak Ashevak: A Retrospective After the death of acclaimed artist Kenojuak Ashevak, Pat travels to Kinngait at the invitation of her family and is one of only two people invited to give remarks. To commemorate the artist’s legacy, FFA opens Kenojuak Ashevak: A Retrospective with community members present.

2022 On the eve of 2022, Pat is appointed to the Order of Canada for her long-standing contributions to the Canadian art scene, particularly her promotion of Inuit art and culture. In October 2022 the gallery celebrates its 30th year of championing contemporary Inuit artists worldwide.

Feheley Fine Arts

— by Cass Gardiner

Art takes up space in both our physical and mental worlds, its presence calling for our attention. But what happens when small things are made big and big things are made little? For Couzyn van Heuvelen, experimenting with size and scale in art is a way to share the values of Inuit culture and shift perspectives of what it means to be Inuit.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

In a world shaped by the shifting states of water, it is of little surprise that the idea of mass has been at the forefront of Inuit artists’ minds. When applied to art, mass speaks to form, referring to the shape, or rather the three-dimensional volume that creates the sense of density; how much space an art piece takes up. The decisions an artist makes when rendering space, suggested or literal, are ways to manipulate our reality, or, in the case of Iqaluit-born sculptor and installation artist Couzyn van Heuvelen, recreate a reality that is distinctly Inuit. van Heuvelen shapes an Inuit visual lexicon through hybrid objects using size, scale and material and fabrication techniques that embrace new and old technologies. Playing with proportion while mediating traditional Inuit materials and objects with contemporary ones, van Heuvelen’s body of work plays with mass in clever ways that articulate the story of Inuit today. “You don’t want people to make assumptions and speculate on what it means to be Inuit and what Inuit culture is. It’s so important that we’re able to have our own voice and we’re able to present an honest and real depiction of who we are, what the art we’re making is, what our culture looks like,”1 says van Heuvelen. The artist brings even the most banal, utilitarian objects to life by highlighting their Inuit cultural significance. One of van Heuvelen’s

Mass

early works, a series called Qamutiit (Sleds) (2014–16), looks at the relationship between Inuit and non-Inuit through two large objects— a qamutiik and a pallet. When reduced to objects they become strikingly similar in form. The qamutiik has long been an important part of Inuit life while the pallet is a relatively newer necessity. Inuk Pallet (2015) is one interaction of creating a hybrid pallet/qamutiik, where challenges and innovation reveal themselves in every part of the construction process. What works on snow— using plastic runners for a qamutiik to traverse the land, or the slight curve of the wood at the bottom—ends up destabilizing the pallet, which is meant to reduce movement during transportation. The qamutiik is a tool or vehicle made by a nomadic society with an emphasis on mobility, while the pallet is a tool designed to bring goods to a society that is stationary. The resulting new object is a conundrum of these two opposing intended purposes, which almost render the object null and void. Inuk Pallet symbolizes a personal struggle between differing cultures for the artist: “I was building a pallet . . . having the sense that in my own life I would have more reason to build a pallet than a qamutiik.” The values of these two objects, much like the values of two cultures, when coming together can limit their functionality. Inuk Pallet also provides him with the opportunity to take

Couzyn van Heuvelen — Avataq (installation view) 2016 Screen printed Mylar, ribbon, aluminum and helium 91 × 76 × 41 cm UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ALL COURTESY FAZAKAS GALLERY ALL © THE ARTIST

BELOW

Qamutiik 2015–16 Found pallets 20.3 × 167.6 × 91.4 cm

Shape-shifting

LEFT

Inuk Pallet 2015 Wood, rope, HPDE plastic and screws 106.7 × 106.7 × 17.8 cm BELOW

Avataq 2016 Screen printed Mylar, ribbon, aluminum and helium 91 × 76 × 41 cm OPPOSITE

Nitsiit 2017 Aluminum, wood, ceramic, steel, stainless steel, rope, aircraft cable, vinyl and paint Dimensions variable PHOTO TONI HAFKENSCHEID

the traditional knowledge of how to build a qamutiik and make it a part of his contemporary life, illustrating the ways in which his artistic practice is not only a form of self-expression, but a way to bring the past into the present and future. Inuit traditional practices and construction are transformed further in Avataq (2016) by using a distinctly modern material to challenge preconceptions about one of the most important animals for Inuit—the seal. An avataq is a traditional sealskin float created by inflating a pelt with air, then plugging and tying it off. It is then attached to a harpoon line and used in hunting to track and tire marine animals. van Heuvelen uses screen printing to apply the animal’s distinct pattern and colours onto Mylar, filling it with helium and tying off the balloon with ribbon. Anchored to the ground with diminutive aluminum harpoon heads to create a staggered group of avataq balloons, the sealskins become playful and fun as a once-dense object becomes weightless. The shared characteristics of a float on the water and the floating of the helium are immediately recognizable. “My imagination for where that would exist, it initially was at festivals, at community kids’ birthday parties and things like that,” van Heuvelen explains. However, he acknowledges that while his intended audience may be Inuit, the majority of his audiences are likely to be non-Inuit art lovers in the South, where seal hunting has a long history of being misunderstood. As a target of groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and other animal-rights activists who miss the complexity and cultural importance that seals and seal hunts have for Inuit, this is not a neutral material for the artist to reference.

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

By altering the mass of the animal, van Heuvelen reclaims the importance of the seal in a time when seal hunting has been largely criticized. In contrast to Avataq, which removes mass, is van Heuvelen’s most recent work, Sealskin Rug (2021), which uses the exaggerated scale and dense materials of wool to take up as much physical space as possible. Sealskin Rug, which was recently commissioned for the groundbreaking exhibition INUA at the WAG-Qaumajuq, plays with size and scale as well as fabrication and material to subvert our expectations of what a sealskin rug might be. The inspiration for the piece comes from being at home during the pandemic: “[Sealskin Rug] uses a familiar technique with mypractice, which is to make [a single object] really big. By doing that, I can take sealskin and I can make it large enough that nearly my whole family could sit down and have it support us and give us comfort.” Both Avataq and Sealskin Rug come out of a relationship with the seal, which allows van Heuvelen to demonstrate the multi-dimensional importance of this animal in all facets of Inuit life. He returns to objects traditionally made of sealskin to be in conversation with the animal itself. By playing with density, like in Avataq, and scale with Sealskin Rug, van Heuvelen alters the perception of how objects made from this foundational material are a part of everyday life, providing food, clothing and homewares. Seals provide nourishment, warmth, shelter and a way to take care of family and community. Moving from the object of subsistence hunting to the implements of it, fishing lures are another repeated theme for van Heuvelen. “The Inuit tradition is to take any outside influence and to incorporate it and make it

Mass

part of [our] culture. I’m not trying to re-invent Inuit art. I’m just trying to continue in those traditions,”2 van Heuvelen said in a 2017 interview with John Thomson of Galleries West. While fishing lures are not only contemporary objects, the neon colours and aesthetics of metal-spoon lures that van Heuvelen references are firmly situated in the present day. Playing with mass and scale, in Nitsiit (2017) he created massive spoon lures of different colours and materials, which hang from the ceiling at Sheridan College’s Hazel McCallion Campus in Mississauga, ON. The giant nature of these objects makes them a commanding presence in this high-traffic common area on campus, asserting Inuit presence in the space. Positioned high above, the lures, made of ceramic, steel, aluminum and brightly coloured resin, provide the perspective of fish and marine life in the water, as one cannot help but look up at their glimmer. Forcing perspective through scale is used again but this time in reverse with Walrus Lure (2015), Beaded Lure (2015) and Baleen Lure (2015). At a much smaller scale, these objects invite the viewer to come extremely close to inspect the detail and variety of fabrication techniques employed. Walrus Lure balances a dense silver skull cast from a miniature 3D-printed walrus. The use of a walrus is significant, as its ivory is a precious material used to make hunting and fishing tools. Trading ivory for the prized Eurocentric material of silver highlights this tension between cultures. Placing the heavy skull tenuously on a thin thread “fishing line” renders the instrument obsolete in its intended purpose. Baleen, the keratin plates that filter food for whales, is polished so that it appears to be a black resin or plastic. Using a 3D printer to mimic a store-bought spoon lure,

Shape-shifting

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

Mass

Shape-shifting

Sealskin Rug 2021 Wool yarn 262 × 381 cm COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY PHOTO SERGE GUMENYUK

ABOVE

Walrus Lure (detail) 2015 Silver, fish hook, thread and brass 15 × 3 × 122 cm

Inuit Art Quarterly

RIGHT (ABOVE)

Beaded Lure 2015 Glass beads, fish hook, thread and brass 15 × 3 × 122 cm RIGHT (BELOW)

Baleen Lure 2015 Baleen, fish hook, thread and brass 15 × 3 × 122 cm

Fall 2022

van Heuvelen employed a laser-cutting process to etch into the surface markings that recall the Inuit scrimshaw technique of repeating geometric patterns. The manipulation of the material into a modern-day implement through 3D printing and laser cutting is a thoughtful expression of bringing traditional Inuit objects and materials into contemporary uses. These small objects also beckon the audience closer, like a fish to a lure, as we examine what van Heuvelen is trying to tell us. Beaded Lure uses the history of glass beads as important objects in trade and clothing adornment and applies it to something seemingly opposite—the subsistence practice of fishing. van Heuvelen presents another use for beadwork, “imagining that fish might find them appealing as well.” Through this, he collapses the boundaries between the human world and those of our animal ancestors. van Heuvelen subtly and consistently highlights the hierarchy of value systems between Inuit and non-Inuit peoples through objects and materials. If the Inuit world is cyclical and collapses the differences between human and animal, by using implements like fishing lures or floats and referencing Inuit materials like sealskin, bone and ivory, van Heuvelen calls on his southern audiences to shift their perspectives. “I’m a sculptor so I think about objects, or maybe it’s the other way around,” he says. While many of his hybrid

Mass

objects illustrate the tension between two ontologies coming together, they also bring into focus the core similarities of basic human needs and desires to provide for our families. Objects that are often thought of as passive come alive inside the artist’s mind. Referencing these shared objects between the South and the Arctic creates a shared vocabulary that van Heuvelen can build on to present his perspectives on Inuit family and culture, foregrounding the potential of seemingly ordinary objects to foster understanding and new ways of looking.

BELOW

Arctic Char Steaks 2021 Steel 27.9 × 45.7 × 15.2 cm COURTESY VISUAL ARTS CENTRE OF CLARINGTON PHOTO LAURA FINDLAY

— Cass Gardiner is an Anishinaabe writer, curator and filmmaker from Kebaowek First Nation. She has worked at many film and art institutions in Canada and the US, including the National Film Board of Canada, Hot Docs and most recently the Tribeca Film Institute. She has worked with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian; Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; the Indigenous Curatorial Collective; Critical Distance Centre for Curators; the Center for Craft, Creativity, and Design; and the International Documentary Association. She produced the short film Jewels Hunt following a young Inuk subsistence hunter, which was broadcast on PBS in 2020. With a focus on Indigenous art and food, her writing can be found in the IAQ, Cherry Bombe Magazine and Compound Butter.

NOTES 1

All quotes Couzyn van Heuvelen, interview with the Inuit Art Quarterly, July 2021.

John Thomson, “Couzyn van Heuvelen Refashions Inuit Tools,” Galleries West, February 13, 2017, www.gallerieswest.ca/ magazine/stories/ couzyn-van-heuvelenrefashions-inuit-tools.

Shape-shifting

— by Franchesca Hebert-Spence

Chonk / tʃɒŋk / slang 1 something that is thick, round and chubby, ideally said with affection or humour. 2 oversized. chonky adjective

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

Akeeaktashuk, attributed to — Mother and Child c. 1965 Stone 18.1 × 42.2 × 29.7 cm COURTESY WAG-QAUMAJUQ © THE ARTIST

OPPOSITE

Luke Iksiktaaryuk — Fanciful Ptarmigan 1969 Stonecut 61 × 64.8 cm COURTESY WADDINGTON’S AUCTIONEERS AND APPRAISERS, TORONTO © THE ARTIST

LEFT

Chantal Jung — “I said I wouldn’t write this song” (stills) 2020 Music video for Black Belt Eagle Scout 3 min 35 sec © THE ARTIST

knowledge through his artwork, I think Iksiktaaryuk’s depiction of ptarmigan can be seen as a celebration of the birds in the artist’s community of Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, a nod to the role they play and a signal of abundance. Chantal Jung’s animations for Black Belt Eagle Scout’s music video “I said I wouldn’t write this song” (2020) and Linda Infante Lyons’ Kal’ut Madonna (2022) accomplish a similar goal. Kal’ut Madonna is part of Lyons’ Icon series, portraits of Alaska Native women and animals like seals that use the halo as a device to communicate the importance of and connection between human and other-than-human figures to non-Indigenous audiences. Jung’s music video animation depicts a person carrying a basket of akpiit, and when they fall out, various animals and sea creatures spring forward, speaking to a larger reciprocal ecosystem. Both of these works use chonk to speak to abundance and centre Indigenous viewership to understand the meaning and stories. Chonky depictions of animals may also speak to the nuances of animal life that can only be observed at close proximity. For example, Fox Takes Off Her Fur After She Eats a Ptarmigan (2022) is Amber Webb’s imagining of the foxes around her home after they’ve been satiated— voluptuous and full. The sexual representation of the form celebrates the abundance and life cycles of foxes and ptarmigans and recentres notions of beauty within an Indigenous worldview. While images like this can be chalked up to anthropomorphism within storytelling or transformation, I would describe the works more as the act of finding the gestures of the fox relatable rather than superimposing human traits on it—it’s a subtle difference, but it’s the difference

After working in a couple different galleries with collections of Inuit art, I began to notice the abundance of artwork that stood out to me as “chonky”—but initially all I knew was that these delightful works went beyond an anthropological, illustrative “these are observations of the everyday.” “Chonk” is internet slang taken from the word chunk, referring to something that is thick, round and chubby, ideally said with affection or humour. Chonk can be applied to the animate and inanimate, animal and human, and might also mean oversized. After some thought and reflection, I see a relationship between artwork depicting chonk within collections and the growing trends within contemporary cultural production online. These artworks have to do with representation and taking up space, acting as catalysts for visual sovereignty for Indigenous artists. Chonk isn’t the reason the artworks incorporate these themes, but rather chonk within artwork is an outcome and expression of these actions. It doesn’t take long to find examples of chonk within artworks, like the rounded form of Fanciful Ptarmigan (1969) by Luke Iksiktaaryuk (1909–1977). I was once jokingly told that ptarmigans were “arctic chicken”; they’re important because if there is no food, ptarmigans are always there and you can eat them.1 It’s not novel to say Fanciful Ptarmigan is an image of an animal that you can eat, but beyond that I’d like to ask what it means that the bird is bright red and yellow, with a generous little belly. Iksiktaaryuk’s subject matter varied across stories of giants, war, hunts and angakkuiit—his larger body of work demonstrates an intimate knowledge of the land and stories. Given his willingness to disseminate Inuit cultural

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Chonk

of not being human-centric. These representations go beyond snapshots, or the idea that animals solely serve as sustenance. Pieces like Parr’s Children Chasing Dogs (1965), where domesticated dogs (evidenced by their generous bellies) are playing with, being chased by and dragging children, show what our day-to-day interactions with other-than-humans are. While a majority of these images are positive depictions of relationships between animals, I’m wary of romanticizing the relationship between human and other-than-human. The extensive body of work of Pitseolak Ashoona, CM, RCA (c. 1904–1983), for example, often represents round birds with sharp little glares and curved claw feet, which are sometimes attacking people or animals. This is something Arctic terns are notorious for, especially when you get too close to their nests. It’s these quirky nuances that add a necessity for lived experience to access the narratives and these works are examples that challenge the idea that artistic production was and is limited to faithful observational depictions—making the chonk part of the cheekiness. Arguably, the chubbiness of their subjects is part of a culturally specific visual language. This visual language is also readable in depictions of people—Mother and Child (c. 1953) is one of a number of sculptures by Akeeaktashuk (1898–1954) featuring large women’s bodies with a delicate focus on details. Rather than

Inuit Art Quarterly

suggest these are representations of bodies Akeeaktashuk saw, or that he worked with the shape of the stone, I question what it means to present larger bodies while lovingly carving details of amautiit and kamiik. Even for the forms that Akeeaktashuk carved, this mother and child is an exaggeration in scale, possibly interpreted as a response to the weight of carrying a child, the weight of caring for a child, or even a playful poke at the exhausted feeling after having a baby. Innately, Mother and Child confronts our biases around the body, in particular women’s bodies, and the conditions where largeness is allowed or condoned. Although the sculpture likely wasn’t made with this intent, by acknowledging the omnipresence of fatphobia we can reinterpret Akeeaktashuk’s Mother and Child as a decision to exaggerate the body, exploring the reasons for that action without dismissing the figure as other-than-human, as humour or as technical exploration. In a similar way, Malaya Kisa-Knickelbein’s practice is centred around visibility. Kisa-Knickelbein’s Northern Beauty Standards (2021) operates as print, social-media design and jewellery, all celebrating embodied beauty in public spaces. There is a relationship between the practice of adorning and caring for a body by making earrings and beautiful clothing to keep it warm; celebrating a body with kakiniit to recognize the achievements, milestones or family; and in the ripples

Fall 2022

OPPOSITE

Amber Webb — Fox Takes Off her Fur After She Eats a Ptarmigan 2022 Ink 40.6 × 42.2 cm © THE ARTIST

LEFT

Malaya Kisa-Knickelbein — Northern Beauty Standards 2021 Digital illustration © THE ARTIST

BELOW

Linda Infante Lyons — Kal’ut Madonna 2022 Oil 76.2 × 76.2 cm © THE ARTIST

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Chonk

ABOVE

BELOW

OPPOSITE

Levi Qumaluk — Basking Walrus n.d. Stone 13.3 × 25.4 × 19.1 cm

Parr — Children Chasing Dogs 1965 Stonecut 62.2 × 85.7 cm

COURTESY FIRST ARTS © THE ARTIST

COURTESY WINNIPEG ART GALLERY © THE ARTIST

Claudia Gutierrez and Inuuqatigiit Centre youth — Untitled 2019 Acrylic 304.8 × 3048 cm — 315 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, ON PHOTO KATHERINE TAKPANNIE © THE ARTISTS

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

down the side and thick thighs—this relationship is the impetus to love bodies as they come. The distribution of work like Kisa-Knickelbein’s that depicts bodies in this way is so important. In the summer of 2018, I made an offhand disparaging remark about my body to Indigenous multimedia artist T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss. Wyss put her hand over her belly and said, “This is the place where love comes from. You have lots of love.” I think about that from time to time and how pervasive Euro-Western beauty standards are incredibly violent to Indigenous bodies and have affected my self-worth. Ultimately, deeply entrenched fatphobia, which comes with those standards, is part and parcel of settler colonialism. Within this article I don’t use the word “fat”— rather chonky, thick, chubby, round and so on. “Fat” has connotations that revoke the permission all those other words have, both for human and animal bodies. It’s for these reasons that self-love and showing bodies of all sizes is a radical act, in the same way that art made to affirm a community’s sovereignty is radical. Displaying animal bodies in public art by Inuit artists in urban spaces serves a comparable function. Take, for example, two murals in Ottawa, ON: Tunnganarniq (2017) in the ByWard Market and an untitled 2019 mural outside of a restaurant called Union Local 613, both created by young Inuit artists—Tunnganarniq by Harry Josephee, Kevin Qimirpik, Janice Qimirpik, Christine Adamie and the Embassy of Imagination, and the Union Local 613 mural by Claudia Gutierrez and ten Inuit youth from the Inuuqatigiit Centre for Inuit Children, Youth and Families—and facilitated by different organizations. The compositions and subjects of both murals are sea creatures—hot-pink seals, whales and walruses in the ocean, all of which fall into the “chonk” category. With two different organizations involved, the overlap in subject matter and approach likely wasn’t institutionally directed. During interviews about the respective works, the artists

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demonstrated awareness of the settler gaze, from the prejudices and racism that exist within the city to romantic southern notions of what the North is. In response, they utilized artistic strategies to subvert those misconceptions and to increase visibility to other Inuit in the community. When asked about the conceptual decisions made for the Union Local 613 mural, Sabrina Taqtu Montague—who led the arts program at Inuuqatigiit—said, “We wanted the painting to use bright colours to reflect the vibrancy of Inuit communities.”2 In part this is done through the sheer scale of both murals and the playfulness of the colour, but it also exists in the visual language of the blubbery sea creatures—a shorthand for abundance, a nod to place, but also what it means to be in relation to one another. At the unveiling of Tunnganarniq, Harry Josephee drew parallels between how hunting a whale brings community together—not only through the hunt itself but also the division of the meat afterwards—and how the mural project had done the same.3 There is a correlation between this unapologetic, unabashed signalling of vibrancy and love to Inuit and a larger public, the current movement towards carving space for self-representation and the body in social media and art spaces, and the chonky sculptures that first drew me in within institutional collections. What began as an exploration of works that spark joy in their charming roundness has slowly become a collection of works that say, “I am here” and “I see you.”

NOTES 1

In conversation with Gwich’in and Inuvialuk storyteller Tom Mcleod, April 3, 2021.

CBC News, “New Inuit Mural Brightens Downtown Ottawa,” CBC, Aug 30, 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/ canada/ottawa/ mural-downtownottawa-building1.5265289.

Joe Lofaro, “Josephee Says He Hopes the Mural Will Bring People Together,” Twitter video, 00:31, July 16, 2017, www.twitter.com/ giuseppelo/status/ 886619617283772417.

— Currently residing in the unceded Algonquin territory of Ottawa, ON, Franchesca Hebert-Spence is Anishinaabe from Winnipeg, MB; her grandmother Marion Ida Spence was from Sagkeeng First Nation, on Lake Winnipeg. Her creative practice stems from IshKabatens Waasa Gaa Inaabateg, Brandon University’s Visual and Aboriginal Arts program. She is a curator, writer and cultural producer and a PhD student in Cultural Mediations (Visual Culture) at Carleton University.

Chonk

Inuktut on the Airwaves — by Corinne Dunphy

Translated by Jeela Palluq-Cloutier

Inuktut Naalautikkut — titiraqtuq Corinne Dunphy

Inuktituuliqtitaujuq uumunga Jeela Palluq-Cloutier

How the Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Northern Service carried Inuktut tunes into the homes of Arctic residents for more than 60 years.

In the early 1960s the shortwave radio came along and CBC Northern Service, now CBC North, started up in Churchill, MB. However, the early programming lacked authentic home-grown content made for, and by, Inuit. The majority of programming was in English, but they left a scanty block of time, once a week, for Inuktitut programming. It wasn’t a lot, but it was something and the shortwave became increasingly important for Inuit because of it. Shortwave radio was and remains essential in remote communities because of the long range of its frequency distribution, which allows communities in the Far North to access content from stations in cities thousands of kilometres away. The sounds of the shortwave illuminated the room with a sort of energy that kept the home’s heartbeat steady despite the heavy darkness of the times. But Inuit yearned for more relevant broadcasts. The inadequate amount of Inuktut programming along with low-quality Inuit music recordings were not an oversight. Creative, fearless Inuit like William Tagoona, a musician and resident of Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, sought to break the status quo. From his little office, Tagoona wrote to Sheldon O’Connell, who worked at the CBC Northern Service in Montreal, QC, but never expected to receive a response. To this day, Tagoona has vivid memories of that letter he wrote. “You know, those guys down in Montreal were playing a little bit of this stuff [Inuit music] on the radio, but it was all home-recording sets. The recording quality just wasn’t there,”1 says Tagoona, referring to the 1973 home-recording sessions that aired with trailblazer musician Charlie Panigoniak, also known as the Johnny Cash of the North. At the time, the musical formula was mainly folk songs: one singer-songwriter on an acoustic guitar and a non-Indigenous studio musician hired to accompany. “Those home recordings sent a strong message. We [Inuit] are lower class than the rest of Canadians.” Tagoona felt the airplay was not doing service to talented Inuit musicians like Charlie Panigoniak and The Sugluk Group. Tagoona was convincing in his plea to the CBC. Soon after, he received a letter from O’Connell, who gave him a challenge. The CBC agreed to pay Tagoona for southern backup musicians and give him the space to perform. If the tracks were successful, the CBC Northern Service

Inuit Art Quarterly

ABOVE & OPPOSITE

A selection of EPs by Charlie Panigoniak and Charlie Adams recorded by CBC Northern Service c. 1970–75

William Tagoona — Help Me Out 1986 Vinyl LP 29 min

UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED ALL COURTESY MUSEUM OF CANADIAN MUSIC / ROBERT WILLISTON

Fall 2022

KINGUNIANIITTUQ

Tusarnaagat nuatausimajut ukunanngat Charlie Paniguniaq amma Charlie Adams nipiliuqtausimajut CBC Ukiuqtamikkunnut Naalautit c. 1970–1975. TAMARMIK PIJAUSIMAJUT KANATAMI NIJJAUSIJAQTIT TAKUJAGAQARVINGANNIT AJJINNGUALIMAAT ROBERT WILLSTON-MIT

IGLUANIT & SAUMIANIITTUQ

William Tagurnaaq — Ikajunnga 1986 Qirniqtuq nijjaut 29 min

CBC-kkut Ukiuqtaqtumi arraagut 60 ungataanut ukiuqtaqturmiunut tusarnaarunnaqtittisimaningit. 1960 pigiarataaqtillugit naalautiit ammalu CBC-kkut Ukiuqtaqtumi pigialauqsimavut Kuujjuaraalummi, Manitoba-mi. Kisiani, pigialisaaqtillugit inungninngaaqtunik inungnut turaangajunik tusaajaksaqtaqattialauqsimanngittuq. Amisuuniqsait CBC-kkut Ukiuqtaqtumi piliriat qallunaatituungalauqtut, kisiani akuniunngittukulungmik, pinasuarusiqtamaat, inuktituungajuqtaqaqpakłuni. Iqarrait akuniulaunngittut, aksulluunniit pitaqalaurmat, amma tamatumunga naalautiit inungnut pimmariulilauqsimajuq. Naalautiiit pimmariulauqsimajut suli maannamut pimmariugijaujut ungasingniqsanut nunalingnut ungasiktumiittunut tikiutijunnarninginnut ukiuqtaqturmiittunut naalaktaujunnaqłutik tausanginniittunik km-nik ungasingniqaqtuniittunik. Naalautinit tusaqsaujut igluni nipiqattiaqłutik angirrami tiglirniqaqtittittiaqłutik taaqtumiikkaluaqtillugit. Kisiani inuit tukisiumajaminik tusaaqattarniqsaujumalauqtut. Inuktuuqtunik naalagaksaqattiannginniq amma inuktuuqtut tusarnaagaksat nipiliuqtauttiaqsimanngittut

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ujjirijaunngittuulaunngimmata, inuit suurlu William Tagurnaaq Kuujjuarmiutaq, Nunavingmi, Quebec-mi, tamatuminga asijjiinasulilauqsimajut. Allavvingminit, Tagurnaaq titiralauqtuq Sheldon O’Connell-mut, iqqanaijalauqtuq CBC-kkut Ukiuqtaqtumi pijitsiqtinginnut Montreal-mi, kisiani kiujaujjaarasugilaunngittiaqtuq. Ullumimut tikiłługu, Tagurnaaq iqqaumattiaqpuq titiralauqtaminik. “Qaujimajutit, taikkua Montreal-mi nilliatittiarjuqattalauqtut [inuktut titaktunit inngiqtuniglu] naalautikkut, kisiani angirrarijaujunit nipiliuqtausimajuinnaullutik. Nipiliuqsimajut piulualaunngittut,”1 uqaqtuq Tagurnaaq, uqausiqaqłuni 1973-mi angirrami nipiliuqtausimajunik tusaqsautitaujunik amma nijjausijaqti Charlie Paniguniaq, taijauvakłuni ukiuqtaqturmiut Johnny Cash-ngant. Taissumani, nijjausijarnirmut inngiusiullualauqtut: atausiq inngiqti/inngiusiuqti kukkitapaaqtuq amma nunaqaqqaaqsimanngittunut titaktimit nijjausiqatiqaqpakłutik.

Inuktut on the Airwaves

BELOW

Charlie Adams — Photo from the back cover of Minstrel on Ice 1981 Vinyl LP 41 min 25 sec PHOTO GERALD MCKENZIE

OPPOSITE (ABOVE)

Charlie Panigoniak — Photo from the back cover of ᖁᕕᐊᓱᒃᕕᒃᓯᐅᑎᑦ ᑐᒃᓯᐊᕈᑎᓪᓗ Inuktitut Christmas & Gospel Songs 1980 Vinyl LP 26 min 29 sec OPPOSITE (BELOW)

Charlie Panigoniak — Inuktitut Songs By Charlie Panigoniak 1975 Vinyl 45s

Inuit Art Quarterly

would continue the sessions with other Inuit musicians. Tagoona packed his bag, flew to Montreal and recorded the very first Northern Service session in 1978. It didn’t take long for CBC producer Les McLaughlin to come ringing. “Who are we going to record next?” he asked. “Charlie Panigoniak,” Tagoona said, without pause. After another success with Charlie Panigoniak, Charlie Adams was next in the queue of Inuit musicians to be recorded. The sessions were declared a huge success. Tagoona’s vision was quickly realized and the recordings lived a sort of nomadic life, skipping from station to station across the world. Approximately 120 records were produced, with 500 discs pressed for each recording exclusively for radio stations. The musicians received a small fee for their contribution, but the sweeping magnitude of the radio’s capabilities to reach the masses was priceless. Ah, the warmth of a radio. Its ability to provide real-time information is unequivocally critical in a world where immeasurable

amounts of information bleed through the Wi-Fi waves every second, or notably, not at all in low-bandwidth communities with spotty connectivity. Also, it’s free. With the high price tag attached to living in the North and the lack of access to basic services like reliable internet (arguably a human right), the radio cultivates a connection to community and beyond its judicial borders. According to a report released in 2017 by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, 94 per cent of Canadians have access to the internet at home, compared to only 24 per cent of Indigenous people in Canada. The radio serves as a reliable source for local and world news. Whether it is Jason Kelly’s weather updates on Qulliq, or Alec Gordan and William Tagoona’s thoughtful insights on Tuttavik, community radio in the North holds trustworthy content Inuit depend on. Born in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), NU, in 1952, Tagoona grew up, like most of his peers, consuming media mainly from the radio. He remembers how well the AM radio operated during the long winter months. It brought in

Fall 2022

IGLUANIITTUQ

QULAANIITTUQ

Charlie Adams — Sikumiujaq 1981 Qirniqtuq nijjaut 41 min 25 sec

Charlie Panagoniak — Quviasugviksiutit Tuksiarutillu Inuktitut Quviasugvingmi & Tuksiarutit Inngiutit 1980 Qirniqtuq nijjaut 26 min 29 sec

AJJINNGUAQ GERALD MCKENZIE-MIT

“Angirrami nipiliuqtaujut sanngijumik tusaqtittilauqtut. Inuktigut attingniqsaujugut Kanatamiunit.” Tagurnaaq isumalauqtuq tusaqsautitauvaktut naammannginninginnik inungnut inngiqtinut suurlu Charlie Paniguniarmut amma Suglumiukkunnut. Tagurnaaq CBC-kkunnut tusaqtaunasulilauqtuq. Kingunittiangagut, titiqqausialauqpuq O’Connell-mit, pijaksaqtaaqtiłłuniuglu. CBC-kkut akiliijumalilauqput Tagurnaaq qallunaat nunangannut nipiliuqtautittaqtuqługu. Nipiliurittiarunnaqpata, tusarnirijaukpatalu CBC Ukiuqtaqtumiut asinginnik inungnik nipiliurikkannirunnarumallutik. Tagurnaaq parnakłuni, Montreal-lialauqsimajuq sivulliqpaattiarmik nipiliuqtaujaqtuliqłuni 1978-mi. Akuniulaunngittuq CBC-kkut Les McLaughlin uqaalalilauqtuq. “Kinamik taima nipiliulaaliqpita?” apirilluni. “Charlie Paniguniaq,” Tagurnaaq kiukautigittiammarikłuni. Nipiliuqsittialauqtillugit Charlie Paniguniarmik, Charlie Adams inungnit nijjausijaqtinit nipiliuqtaulirilluni. Nipiliuqtaujut kajusiniqattiaqtummarialuulauqtut. Tagurnaap tautunnguaganga tagvaulikauqtulauqtuq, nipiliuqtausimajullu nanituinnaq nunarjuarmi tusaqsaujunnaqsillutik. 120−nginniipaluktunik nipiliulauqsimajut, 500-nik qilliqtuliuqpakłutik nipiliuqtaujulimaanut naalautiqarvinut nilliatitauqattarunnarniaqtunik. Nijjausijaqtiit akiliqtauraarjulauqtut nipiliuqtaunirminut, kisiani naalautikkut amisummarialungnut tusarnaaqtaujunnalirningit akitaaqtitaksaulaunngittut. Aa, naalautiup akauninga suurlu uunajunngnaqpuq. Irnngiinnaq tusaumatitijunnarninga nunarjuarmiunut pimmarialuuliqtuq qanutuinnattiammarialuk tusaumajunnaliratta ikiaqqivikkuuqtunik, irngiinakautigi kisiani ujjirnaqtuq, nunaliit kasurunnautiqattiannginniqsaujut nakatausimaliqattaqtullu taimanna pijunnaqtiginnginninginnik. Akiqanngiłłunilu. Ukiuqtaqturmiunut akitujualungniittunut amma ukiuqtaqturmi pijittirattiaqtaunginnarunnannginniq suurlu ikiaqqivikkuurunnarniq (inulimaanut pijunnautaulluaqtuq), naalautikkut nunaliit kasuksimajunnaqpakput aviktuqtausimagaluaqtillugit. Unikkaaq saqqitaulauqsimajuq 2017−mi Kanatami Naalautikkut−Tarrijautikkut amma Tusaumajulirijikkut Katimajinginnut, 94 % kanatamiut ikiaqqivikkuurunnautiqalauqput angirramini, 24 %-tuinnautillugit nunaqaqqaaqsimajunut Kanatami. Naalautikkut nunalingmiut tusaumavakput nunalingmini nunarjuarmillu pivalliajunik. Jason Kelly silanniaraluaqpat Qullikkut, Alec Gordan William Tagurnaalluunniit uqallakkaluaqpatik isumagijarminik Tuttavikkut, nunalingni naalautit ukiuqtaqturmi inungnut atuutiqallariksimajut. Inuunikuulluni Qamani’tuarmi, Nunavummi, 1952-ngutillugu, Tagurnaaq piruqsalauqsimavuq, naligumiiqatimitut, naalautikkuinnapaluk tusagaksanik tusaumavakłutik. Iqqaumajuq qanuq AM naalautikkut tusaqsauttiaqpalaurninganik ukiukkut. Nakituinnaaluk nunarjuarmit naalagunnaqpalauqtut. “Taakkua nipiqquqtujunik sukkaittuniglu nijjausijaqtut nakituinnaaluk nunarjuarmi tusaajunnaliqłutigut, uakallaaluulauqsimajuq,” uqaqłuni. Lorna Paniguniaq, nijjausijaqti ammalu nuliarijaulluni Charlie Paniguniarmut, iqqaumattiaqtuq taissumaniulauqtumik. Lorna piruqsalauqtuq William Tagurnaakkut angirrangata akittiangani angirraqaqłuni. Ataatanga, Philip Tasiuq, naalakpalauqtuq naalautiminik unnukkut. Iqqaumajuq nutaraulluni iglurusitualingmik iglumiiłłuni Eskimo Point-mi (Arviat taimaak taijauvalauqsimagaluarmat). Unnuakkut, taaqtummarialuulauqsimajuq. Taissumani Lornakut ilagiit ajuqsammarilautuit, angirrangalu qaummaqutiqarani, kappujjautiqarani. Uqquunasuaqłutik, ilagiit iglirmi marruuksiutimi tutikpalauqtut,

ATAANIITTUQ

Charlie Panigoniak — Inuktitut inngiutit Charlie Paniguniaq 1975 Qirniqtuq nijjaut

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Inuktut on the Airwaves

RIGHT

Charlie Panigoniak and Lorna Tasseor — Just For Kids 1981 Vinyl LP 22 min 39 sec OPPOSITE

Charlie Panigoniak and Lorna Tasseor at CBC studio in Yellowknife, NT COURTESY NWT ARCHIVES/ NATIVE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY FONDS - NATIVE PRESS PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION/N-2018-010: 04521 PHOTO TESSA MACINTOSH

NOTES 1

All quotes from William Tagoona, interview with Corinne Dunphy, May 2022.

signals from all over the world. “We could get these rock and country stations coming into our homes from nations all over the world, it was just amazing,” he says. Lorna Panigoniak, née Tasseor, musician and wife of Charlie Panigoniak, remembers those days well. Lorna lived across the street from William Tagoona’s family growing up. Her father, Philip Tassiuk, listened to the shortwave radio at night. She remembers laying there as a child in her one-room matchbox house in Arviat, NU. At night, the room was the darkest of darks. This was a time of great poverty in Lorna’s life and her childhood home was not wired with electricity. To keep warm, the family would sleep together in a double bed, cuddled close. Lorna would habitually fall asleep to the sounds of her father turning the clunky dial on his battery-operated portable radio, eternally on the hunt for country music. It wasn’t long before Lorna’s youthful voice would chime into kitchens across the North. Lorna and her late husband were contributors to the Northern Broadcast Sessions, and even recorded an all-Inuktitut children’s album, Just for Kids (1981). The entire series of the CBC Northern sessions introduced quality melodic Inuktut stories to the world, and more importantly, to Inuit communities by radio. They may lack traditional drums and throat songs, but they document modern Inuit life as well as

Inuit Art Quarterly

history through their lyrics. Without the recordings, these stories would be buried. In conversation with Tagoona, he said, “We were from an era where the government’s role was to destroy us. Destroy our culture, destroy our language, no to shamanism, no to throat singing. So when CBC said ‘we will record you with a professional musician,’ of course we said yes to having a platform. The Charlies are gone now but their music is still out there and very visible on the radio. You hear the music being played as if it’s been recorded yesterday.” Back in Kangiqliniq, Lorna gets through her days deeply missing her sweetheart Charlie. She misses the days of live performances and dreams of performing live once more. Until then, Lorna stands in her kitchen, humming along as CBC Kivalliq gifts her with Charlie’s melodies. She gets lost in memories of him only for a brief moment, interrupted by the scampering footsteps of her grandchildren, bolting around the corner to turn that radio up full blast. — Corinne Dunphy is a documentary filmmaker and graduate of NSCAD University (BFA Major in Photography) and Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly Ryerson University (MFA in Documentary Media). She uses stories to engage, educate and help foster social change.

Fall 2022

aktuaqatigiittiaqłutik. Lorna siniliqattalauqpuq ataatanga naalautinik nilliqtittinasuktuq paataliinuuqtunik, sukkaittunik tusarnaagaksaqsiunginnaujaqłuni. AkuniunngittuqLornaup nipinga tusaqsauvalilauqpuq ukiuqtaqturmiunut. Lorna uigilauqtangalu ikajulauqtuk ukiuqtaqtumi tusaqsaujuksaliuqtillugit, amma nipiliurillutik inuktitutuinnaq turaangajumik nutaqqanut, nutaqqanut (1981). Tamarmittiaq CBC-kkut Ukiuqtaqturmiunut tusaqsaujuksaliangujut inuktuuqtunik tusaqsautittivalilauqtut nunarjualimaamut, piluaqtumiglu, inuit nunanginnut naalautikkut. Qilaujjanngikkaluaramik katajjarnatiglu, kisiani inuit inuusinginnik atuqsimajanginniglu inngiutimiktigut saqqittingmata. Nipiliuqsimajuqanngippat, taakkua unikkaat saujausimanajaqput. Uqaqatigillugu Tagurnaaq, uqalauqtuq, “Taikanngaaqsimalauratta gavamakkunnut suraktaunasukłuta. Iliqqusivut asiutinnasuglugu, uqausiqput asiutinnasuglugu, angakkuqarunniirluni, katajjaqtuqaqpagunniirluni. Taimali CBC-kkut uqarmata nipiliuriniarniraqłutik nijjausijaqtimmarik-

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kutigut, angikautigilauqsimavugut. Charlie-kkuk inuujunniiqsimaliqtuugaluak kisiani suli nijjausijautingit suli naalautikkut tusaqsauqattaqtut. tusaqsauqattaqtut suurlu ippaksasaaq nipiliuqtaujuviniullutik. Maannaujurli Kangiqłinirmi, Lorna ullurminik aniguivaktuq Charlie-mik ungaliqsimammarikłuni. Kinguniqanaaqsivakpuq qunngiaqtauvangnirilauqtaminik, atausiakkannirlunilu qunngiaqtaulaarumalluni. Taimaittunnaqsinnginnirmini, Lorna niqłiurvingminiippakpuq, inngijuujaqłuni CBC Kivallirmik naalakłuni Charlie-up inngiusinginnik. Iqqaumalluniuk asiusimalaukakpaktuq, ulavitauvakłuni irngutanginnut, ullaksivaktut naalautinik nipiqquqtusitittijaaqtuqłutik. — Corinne Dunphy tarrijausiuqtiujuq ilinniaraaniksimallunilu NSCAD silattuqsarvigjuarmit (BFA-qaqtuq ajjiliurijiunirmut) amma Toronto Metropolitan Silattuqsarvigjuarmit, taijaulauqsimajuq Ryerson Silattuqsarvigjuarmik (MFA tarrijaaksaliurnirmut). Unikkaatigut uqaqatiqaqpaktuq, ilinniaqtittillunilu inuusirnut asijjiqpallianiujunik.

UJJIRIJARIAQAQTUT 1

Uqausiusimajulimaat William Tagurnaarmit, apiqsuqtaulluni Corinne Dunphy-mut, May 2022−mi.

IGLUANIITTUQ

Charlie Paniguniaq amma Lorna Tasiuq — Surusikulungnut 1981 Qirniqtuq nijjaut 22 min 39 sec QULAANIITTUQ

Charlie Paniguniaq amma Lorna Tasiuq CBC nipiliurvingani Yellowknife-mi ajjinnguat NWT-mi nuatausimajunit/ Nunaqaqqaaqsimajut tusaumaqatigiigutingit Inuuqatigiinit Nunaqaqqaaqsimajut PIVALLIAJUNUT AJJINNGUAQ NUATAUSIMAJUT/N-2018-010: 04521 AJJINNGUAQ TESSA MACINTOSH-MIT

Inuktut on the Airwaves

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ᑕᕐᕿᑕᒫᑦ tarqitamaat.ca artist of the month of july Taqralik Partridge Taqralik Partridge, Loss, digital photography, 2020

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

2022 Arctic Arts Summit

Creating Circumpolar Connections

Between June 27 and 29, 2022, the third Arctic Arts Summit was co-hosted by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Government of Yukon. The event brought together representatives of Arctic countries and the Indigenous Nations of the circumpolar region on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council in Whitehorse, YT. “The idea of creating a circumpolar summit for arts and culture started in 2015. At the time, the political discussions on the future development of the Arctic were led from the South and the northern perspective was rarely taken into consideration. I was struck by how international reports and official documents on the Arctic were limited to resource management and global environmental issues. Arts and culture were not even mentioned as areas of political interest. Yet, from our northern perspective, culture was and remains an imperative driving force for sustainable growth and development in the North. The first Arctic Arts Summit became a reality in June 2017, with official representation from all eight Arctic countries, including the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Arctic Council secretariat, the European Union and a broad spectrum of arts institutions, art organizations and artists.” PREVIOUS

ABOVE (LEFT)

A member of Yukon’s Dakhká Khwáan Dancers at the Arctic Arts Summit’s Nuihařuq event on June 29 in Whitehorse, YT

Artists at work at the Unorthodox store during the Arctic Arts Summit’s Art Crawl in Whitehorse, YT

Inuit Art Quarterly

ABOVE (RIGHT)

Beatrice Deer at the Arctic Arts Summit’s Nuihařuq

MARIA UTSI SUMMIT FOUNDER AND 2022 INTERNATIONAL LIAISON

Although the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit was limited to 300 delegates due to COVID-19 restrictions, we invite you to join us behind the scenes and experience the event in these pages and online at: ArcticArtsSummit.ca 62

Fall 2022

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

TETHER

YUKON ARTS CENTRE GALLERY JUNE 25–AUGUST 26, 2022

A featured visual art exhibition at the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit, TETHER brought together more than 50 artworks by Northern Indigenous artists whose works display the complex and inseparable bonds across diverse lands, waters, nations and peoples. The following conversation brings together co-curators Darcie “Ouiyaghasiak’’ Bernhardt, Leanne Inuarak-Dall, Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé and Heather Von Steinhagen with Inuit Art Quarterly Associate Editor Napatsi Folger to reflect on the unique experience of curating collaboratively from a distance and other insights.

NAPATSI: How were you approached to be curators for this exhibition? LEANNE: We were brought together through the Inuit Futures in Arts Leadership: The Pilimmaksarniq / Pijariuqsarniq Project, which is led by Dr. Heather Igloliorte. So Heather and Dr. Julie Nagam from the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) Collective were our mentors, along with Mary Bradshaw, Director of Visual Arts at the Yukon Arts Centre. NAPATSI: What was it like co-curating when you were all so far apart and having to do it all online? DARCIE: I think at this point everybody’s used to Zoom calls and working online. It was difficult to

Mass

review collections virtually through little tiny thumbnails [on PDFs]. So that was a challenge, but also very exciting because we had such a vast selection [of works to choose from]. TERESA: Heather and I both had relationships with the Yukon Arts Centre and the Yukon Permanent Art Collection prior to this, so we both knew that collection somewhat and we’d seen some of the work in person. I hadn’t seen works like Jackie Olson’s Gwich’in Dress though. And then for Leanne and Darcie, I think everything was pretty much new. LEANNE: I’ve spent a lot of time in the Inuit Art Foundation archives, so it was very similar to that kind of work. The institutions [we worked

ABOVE

Installation view, TETHER, Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, YT, July 2022 PHOTO JONAS HENDERSON

Spotlight Section

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

with for this exhibition] would either send us hundred-page PDFs that we would have to go through, or we were able to make requests, like, “Hey, we’re interested in this region or this medium,” and they gave us selections based on those requests. ABOVE (LEFT)

ABOVE (RIGHT)

OPPOSITE

TETHER co-curators Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé, Leanne Inuarak-Dall, Darcie “Ouiyaghasiak” Bernhardt and Heather Von Steinhagen with the Governor General, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, pose in front of a wallhanging by Marion Tuu’luuq. Yukon Arts Centre, Whitehorse, YT, July 2022 COURTESY YUKON ARTS CENTRE PHOTO MIKE THOMAS

Inuit Art Quarterly

NAPATSI: So the first time you saw the art in person was when you arrived here to set it up? LEANNE: I almost cried when I saw it in person. Everything seemed larger than life and almost unreal. We had the measurements, but you don’t really get a sense of the scale or the detail until you see it in person. So it was really amazing for me. TERESA: Heather and I had the opportunity to uncrate all of the work before Leanne and Darcie arrived. It was pretty remarkable to see the work in person and get a chance to hold it. My favourite part of install is being able to hold the work. Obviously in white gloves. HEATHER: I would add that there’s a certain type of energy that exists within these artworks that is rarely unleashed because it’s often kept in collection [vaults] or behind walls. So that was really cool, as well as bringing it to the North, because most of these pieces are from the South. LEANNE: We did a lot of planning. We started meeting weekly as soon as we signed on to the project in fall 2021. For a lot of the pieces, they did stay in the gallery where we had originally planned. But we also did make changes on-site. In person we were able to make certain connections and see the relationships between some of the works that maybe weren’t as apparent just looking at them online.

HEATHER: The exhibition really came from the guiding question of “What does it mean to be Indigenous people from the North?” Throughout the process, we identified a few themes that stood out, like intergenerational knowledge transfer, land-based subsistence practices, travel culture and technology. And so the exhibition carries those themes. We had a plan to bring in those connections but, as Leanne said, once we were in the space, we noticed different stories being told. And I think that’s what the end result was. TERESA: We were working up until the very last minute [before the opening]. There was work that hadn’t arrived, which caused a bit of grief. But everything arrived and went up just in time. There’s the stress of install, but also the excitement. Every time we got a piece in, there was just a big celebration. LEANNE: Going off of what Teresa was saying, I think what was really interesting in working with the four of us was our decision-making process. I think we strived to have a consensus throughout. We would always try to wait until everybody was around to make any big decisions. And even when we were making our selections, we developed a voting process. If we were split, then we would talk things out until we all were all [on the same page]. That was really special. NAPATSI: This was such an incredible show, I feel like having four Indigenous artists from different cultures co-curating had a lot to do with that. Did this process give you any insight into your own future art? HEATHER: For me, specifically, Indigenous [artistic] practices can feel quite pigeonholed. Having northern work from everywhere in one spot really

Fall 2022

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

Darcie “Ouiyaghasiak” Bernhardt is an Inuvialuk/Gwichin artist from Tuktuyaaqtuuq, NT, and alumna of NSCAD University (BFA, 2019). Their practice has primarily focused on the narrative of domestic life in the North stemming from memories of home. Their first solo painting show, titled Akisuktuaq, was shown at Feheley Fine Arts in June 2021. Leanne Inuarak-Dall is an emerging Inuk and settler multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator based on the unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver, BC). She is an Inuit Futures ilinniaqtuk (student) currently completing her studies in Fine Arts at Langara College and works as a Contributing Editor at the Inuit Art Quarterly. expanded my view of what art is and how it can be sacred and how tools are sacred. It gave me permission to go all in and be weird because people love it. DARCIE: It was really interesting to see work from all these different places in so-called northern Canada and learn more about their histories, for example, learning about babiche bags. These little tiny objects—these tools—hold so much knowledge, so much memory. I think that’s the part where I’m feeling inspired. Echoing what Heather said, how can we transfer this knowledge to our own work? TERESA: I have one that came up on a tour, which is my desire to have people touch my work. With the work coming from collections, there were some pieces that were required to be behind glass. I want people to touch my work. There’s something about the tactility, I want people to be able to touch it and grab it. HEATHER: I think what we discovered through the exhibition’s namesake was not only is the artwork tethered together in terms of [thematic] connection,

but even our interpretations and being related to artists distantly. I thought that was a super beautiful thing that came out of it. And it was very natural—our decision-making and how unapologetically Indigenous we decided to be. We tried to own that position. LEANNE: It was very special for me to learn about Yukon First Nations art and to have the opportunity to see the uniqueness and the connections across the regions. That’s something I hadn’t seen before, and then also being able to display them side-by-side. I’m just glad that so many people across the world are able to see it, but I think most especially the local people here. I really had a fun time at the local public opening. NAPATSI: What was the feedback from the local Whitehorse community? LEANNE: What I really loved about it was the people. There were Elders and kids running around. Seeing people sitting down and just having a conversation and spending time in the gallery was really rewarding.

Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé, affectionately known as Ddhälh kit Nelnah, is a proud Niisüü member of White River First Nation (Beaver Creek, Yukon and Alaska). She is an Upper Tanana and mixed-heritage visual artist, emerging curator and Master of Fine Arts student at Concordia University in Studio Arts. Teresa currently sits on the board of the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones. Heather Von Steinhagen is an “artist of sorts” with Cowessess First Nation (mother) and German roots (father, second-generation. Canadian). Heather’s passion for supporting creative innovation and community building drives her career and art practice. She is the former Executive Director of the Yukon Arts Society (2020) and is the current Craft Content Developer at the Canadian Crafts Federation.

Read more about TETHER at ArcticArtsSummit.ca/tether

TETHER featured nine commissions and a curatorial audio project with three language speakers and brought together works from the Yukon Permanent Art Collection, Indigenous Art Collection, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Canada Council Art Bank, Global Affairs Canada and the WAG-Qaumajuq. Mass

Spotlight Section

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

Land of None | Land of Us HOUGEN CENTRE JUNE 28–29, 2022

Challenging the idea of an “unoccupied” or “vast, empty” Arctic by sharing images of Indigenous connections to land, knowledges, practices, relationships and kinships around the circumpolar world, Land of None | Land of Us is curated by Jennifer Bowen, Alice Marie Jektevik, Melissa Shaginoff and Jessica Winters, and mentored by Pat Kane and Dr. Heather Igloliorte. The exhibition will also be featured in Toronto, ON, this fall during the CONTACT Photography Festival and Nuit Blanche. “[This] is a portrait taken on the mountain in Kåfjord, during filming the documentary film Inger Ellen Baal ‘Eallin.’ It is also the cover picture to the film. The picture [was] taken in her small cabinet, the only remaining asset after the power development in the area that led to her family losing the right to practice reindeer herding in the area, Goulaš, back in the ’70s.”

LEFT

BELOW (RIGHT)

Ørjan Marakatt Bertelsen — Portrait of Inger Ellen Baal 2021 Photograph

BELOW (LEFT)

Meeka Steen — Harvesting Beluga under the midnight sun 2021 Photograph

ØRJAN MARAKATT BERTELSEN SÁPMI, NORWAY

“This photo is a self-representation of how I define myself in this modern era. I’m still in the process of regaining my Native identity through my research of archived ancestral knowledge. Within my research, I am also exploring the different art formats that my people created hundreds of years ago.” “Harvesting our country foods has sustained us for generations. My thoughts when I was capturing this photo was how fortunate and blessed we are to be able to continue our cultural traditions, to carry on the knowledge that has been passed on for many generations! Muktuk is a delicacy for the Inuvialuit. Mamaqtuq! (Taste good!)”

GOLGA OSCAR SOUTHWEST ALASKA

MEEKA STEEN TUKTUYAAQTUUQ

Read more about Land of None | Land of Us at ArcticArtsSummit.ca/landofnonelandofus

Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

Nuihařuq

KWANLIN DÜN CULTURAL CENTRE JUNE 28, 2022

Spanning theatre, dance, music, puppetry and performance art in both contemporary and traditional practices, Nuihařuq—meaning “visible from a distance”—was the performance-arts component of the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit curated by Inuvialuk/ Gwich’in/Denesuline/Cree artistic director Reneltta Arluk. Connection to land and story was the thematic focus of Nuihařuq, with multiple venues paralleling the Yukon River to offer a performance journey spanning the circumpolar North.

LEFT

The Dakhká Khwáan Dancers lead a procession during the Arctic Arts Summit’s Nuihařuq event at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre on June 28 © COURTESY YUKON ARTS CENTRE PHOTO MIKE THOMAS

audience so that no one was left behind. The procession, led by the Dakhká Khwáan Dancers Group, was conceived to activate the audience and to get them used to the fact that they would be moving throughout the evening. Nuihařuq featured spoken-word storytelling, traditional drumming, contemporary dance, traditional dance, full-band, solo performances, hip-hop—we had it all—but it was curated in a way that everyone was open to receiving these different performances. I wanted people to have different experiences and I wanted to make sure that the artists were performing at venues that suited their work. People left healed. The next day, the artists and the audience were talking about how they left the event feeling so full. It was like you were being held, like you couldn’t be left behind.”

“I thought the title Nuihařuq was appropriate because we brought in people from all across the circumpolar North and we see e ach other from afar. In many ways, we are borderless because we are all engaged with each other in some capacity. We’ve been sitting in one spot, in front of our computers, for like two years [so] I thought it would be great to get people moving and take advantage of the beautiful landscape in the Yukon and the beautiful venue that is the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre. Nuihařuq was five glorious hours of incredible entertainment on the second day of the Arctic Arts Summit. It started at 6:30 PM and went right till midnight. We used three outdoor sites and brought in puppets to help navigate the multiple venues. Wherever you were, the Yukon River was right there. We commissioned a local professional theatre company, Nakai Theatre, to make fish puppets that guided the

RENELTTA ARLUK ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT 2022 ARTIST DIRECTOR

Read more about Nuihařuq at ArcticArtsSummit.ca/nuiharuq Mass

Spotlight Section

2022 ARCTIC ARTS SUMMIT

A Digital Platform for Dialogue Curated and commissioned by the Inuit Art Foundation, the Arctic Arts Summit’s digital platform invites the world to engage with artists and organizations across the circumpolar North—and to extend conversations beyond the 2022 event. New content is published regularly, so check back often to ArcticArtsSummit.ca and on social media to receive a rich variety of content, from artist interviews and profiles to essays, artist projects and a special series of guest-curated Spotlights directly in your inbox.

Panel Discussion Highlights Enjoy the 2022 Arctic Art Summit from the comfort of your home! Catch up on these timely and important conversations: • Voices from the Land: Artists Speak. • North to North: New Directions for a Collaborative Future. • Status Report: Decolonizing Arts Institutions. • And many more!

Looking Forward The Knowledge Creators Next program brought together northern Indigenous postsecondary students, young activists and emerging professionals to reflect on and respond on their experiences of the gathering: • Community Connections as Creative Inspiration Coming together and reigniting creativity • The Power of Language How language revitalization and protection connect us to our culture • Drawing Strength from Community Communication, self advocacy and management in the arts field • And many more!

Guest-curated Circumpolar Spotlights TOP

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Erica Dee Mah at the Theatre in the Bush event during the Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse, YT, on June 29

Karrie Brown — Moose Hide Mukluks 2018 Home tanned moose hide, canvas, lynx fur, beads, traditional Sámi trim and nylon thread 33 × 14 × 26.7 cm (each)

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Hans-Henrik Suersaq Poulsen of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) performs at the Theatre in the Bush event

Showcasing projects, stories and initiatives across the global Arctic, these online Spotlights highlight Indigenous and other northern voices in the arts, foregrounding connection and exchange across the circumpolar world: • A Portrait of Northern Sweden’s Vibrant Artistic Ecosystem Profiles, projects and essays from Norrbotten, Västerbotten and Sápmi • History, Memory and Community at the Yukon Arts Centre Recent projects and collaborations in support of the Yukon’s diverse artistic communities

• An Introduction to the Art and Culture of Kalaallit Nunaat Greenlandic approaches to research, music, art, dance and more • And many more!

The Summit’s Digital Platform was produced with the support of

Inuit Art Quarterly

Don’t miss a thing, visit ArcticArtsSummit.ca for the full story today! 68

Fall 2022

Studio PM

2022 Cape Dorset Annual Print Collection Ooloosie Saila, Etching with chine collé

studiopmmontreal@gmail.com 514-878-9222

“Uppijjiaq” (Snowy Owl) 2022 Alabaster, African wonderstone Manasie Akpaliapik (1955 - Cont) Ikpiarjuk, Nunavut & Ontario 11.0” x 9.5” x 8.0”

Specializing in Inuit Art since 1963

Untitiled by Ennutsiak, Iqaluit

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TRIBUTE

Nellie Winters

BELOW (LEFT)

BELOW (RIGHT)

Nellie Winters embroidering

Nellie Winters – Commander coat with freehand embroidery (detail)

COURTESY JESSICA WINTERS

by Jessica Winters

My grandmother, Nellie Winters, was relocated to Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, NL, from Okak Bay, NL, in 1956 by the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial government. In Makkovik she raised 11 children, who eventually raised me. Within my community, but more specifically within my family, I was always surrounded by arts and crafts. Even as a small child it was never something I viewed as a hobby or source of income, but more of a natural thing my family had a desire to do. Reflecting on the different forms of work I witnessed growing up, and now with a better understanding of Inuit arts and crafts from different regions, I have come to greatly appreciate my family’s masterful embroidery work. Born in 1938, my grandmother—who recently received an honorary doctorate Inuit Art Quarterly

from Memorial University of Newfoundland for her contributions to Inuit art and culture— had to embroider as a young girl while attending residential school. The children would be instructed to sew inukuluit (little Inuit figures) and traditional scenes on items such as tablecloths, which would then be sold to southerners. She has told me many times about how the children were instructed to sew the inukuluit in certain ways; for example, by putting black borders around the figures and filling them in with a running stitch. But in the 1960s she developed her own style of embroidery, taking the medium in new directions. Now when she sews her inukuluit, my grandmother no longer creates the black borders and has changed the style of her 70

trees to include a thick layer of snow on top of the branches. In addition to the traditional Inuit scenes she was encouraged to make as a child, she now embroiders intricate, colourful flowers on items such as duffle mitts. Her influence on arts and crafts within Makkovik has been, in my opinion, quite substantial. Not only because she is a master at what she does, but also because she taught many people in the community. For example, in the 1980s she led a workshop for a dozen women on how to make duffle jackets. My mother, Blanche Winters, started her own practice at an early age and has spent years perfecting her embroidery. Her own intricate flower patterns were showcased on a line of five parkas she Fall 2022

TRIBUTE

produced for Canada Goose’s 2019 Project Atigi. For nearly 20 years my mother has taught traditional arts and crafts techniques to children at our all-grade school, and she contributes largely to the production of artwork in our community. She really appreciates the quality of my grandmother’s embroidery and strives to achieve the same. She puts her own ideas into her designs, but her motivation for both starting embroidery and becoming a master comes from her mother. The flowers are definitely a commonality, but I think my grandmother really connects more to the inukuluit than my mom, perhaps because she was much more immersed in her culture as a child growing up in Okak Bay. It is their passion and appreciation for our culture that inspires me to create and I know they have had this effect on many others throughout Makkovik as well. Despite the hardships brought on by relocation and residential schooling, they have found positive outlets through art and craft. I know that everyone can see just how much they both have contributed to Inuit art over the years, but I think people fail to see how much arts and crafts have contributed to their inner selves. Art has always been a constant in my grandmother’s life, creating a connection to her ancestry, as well as to future generations. — Jessica Winters is an Inuk painter, printmaker, textile artist and emerging curator from Makkovik, Nunatsiavut, NL. She got her artistic start at an early age thanks to her family of accomplished craftspeople, including grandmother Nellie Winters, a celebrated textile artist. Jessica has been heavily influenced by her studies in biology and uses her work to advocate for the preservation of Inuit culture, values and surrounding environment. She has exhibited in group shows, including Nunatsiavut / Our Beautiful Land (2019) at The Guild in Montreal, QC, Of Myths and Mountains (2020) and The Wish150 Newfoundland & Labrador Mosaic (2017), both at The Rooms in St. John’s, NL, Qautamaat | Every day / everyday (2022) at the Art Gallery of Guelph, ON, and TETHER (2022) at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse, YT.

ABOVE

BELOW (LEFT)

Nellie Winters — Short Tail Silipak with Embroidery 2015 Commander cloth, sealskin lining, ric rac and silk embroidery 57.3 × 76.2 cm

Nellie Winters at her Memorial University convocation with her granddaughters, including Jessica Winters (far left), 2021

Blanche Winters — Project Atigi Parka 2021 Canada Goose Arctic Tech fabric, PrimaLoft synthetic insulation, coyote fur and trimmings Dimensions variable

COURTESY JESSICA WINTERS

BELOW (RIGHT)

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Fall 2022

Michael Massie October 2022 The long awaited first solo show at Feheley Fine Arts Artwork: THE NON-FUNCTIONALI-TEA, 2021 Sterling silver and purple heart wood 14 1/8 x 7 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.

www.feheleyfinearts.com gallery@feheleyfinearts.com 65 George Street, Toronto 416 323 1373

PA D L O O S A M AY U A L I E 1 1 . 5 ” X 1 5 ”, C O L O U R E D P E N C I L , I N K

6 0 6 V I E W S T R E E T V I C T O R I A , B . C . 2 5 0 . 3 8 0 . 4 6 6 0 W W W . M A D R O N A G A L L E R Y. C O M

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NEWS

Updates and highlights from the world of Inuit art and culture

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Tivi Etok — When we were young we played all kinds of games 1978 Stonecut 39 × 51.5 cm

Inuit Art Foundation staff and Board members watching the 45th Annual Magazine Awards on Zoom, 2022

BOTTOM (RIGHT)

Tivi Etok Becomes Member of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres du Québec This May, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) announced that Inuk artist Tivi Etok, alongside 11 other luminaries, would be inducted into the Ordre des arts et des lettres du Québec in a ceremony on June 6. An honourary distinction instituted in 2015 to mark CALQ’s 20th anniversary, the Ordre is awarded annually to artists, writers, teachers, managers and patrons for outstanding contribution to the development and reputation of excellence of Québec arts and literature at home and abroad. Based in Kangiqsualujjuaq, Nunavik, QC, Etok is a printmaker and graphic artist whose work is defined by the fight for survival, portrayed either out on the land while hunting or against spirits and the supernatural. He is best known as the first (and second) Inuk artist ever to have a solo print release. whispering in my ears and mingling with my dreams (1975) travelled nationally and internationally and was quickly followed a year later with a second solo release. Etok’s desire to keep old stories and ways of life alive for future generations was chronicled in the trilingual biography of his life and work, The World of Tivi Etok, in 2008. Etok is the third Inuk artist to be inducted into the Ordre; singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac became a Compagne in 2021 and sculptor Mattiusi Iyaituk was inducted in 2018.

Canada Council for the Arts Announces Two Funding and Capacity Building Partnerships for Indigenous Artists

IAQ Takes Home Gold at National Magazine Awards The 45th National Magazine Awards (NMA) were held virtually on Friday, June 3. Inuit Art Foundation staff and Board members watched over Zoom and were honoured to have been selected as the Best Arts and Literary Magazine and Magazine Grand Prix winner at this year’s National Magazine Awards! After winning Gold for Best Magazine: Art, Literary & Culture, the Inuit Art Quarterly became eligible for the Magazine Grand Prix, the NMA’s most coveted editorial award given to the best overall magazine in Canada. The IAQ was presented with the top prize by Melony Ward, President, National Media Awards Foundation; and Publisher and Director of Business Enterprise, Canada’s National History Society. “The Magazine Grand Prix honours a magazine that displays excellence across the board,” said Ward. “The recipient is inspiring, worthy of aspiration and demonstrates the best that Canadian magazines have to offer.” Relaying the NMA jury’s comments, Ward concluded, “Visually stunning, ambitious and ultimately necessary, Inuit Art Quarterly succeeds as both a magazine and as a cultural entry point to a world much of the country hasn’t seen.” This marks the fourth time the IAQ has been recognized for excellence in the category of Best Magazine: Arts, Literary & Culture and the magazine’s first Gold at the NMAs.

This summer, the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) announced two partnerships to support Indigenous artists throughout the North—one with the Government of Yukon and one with the Inuit Art Foundation (IAF). During the Arctic Arts Summit in Whitehorse, Yukon, which ran from June 27–29, the CCA and the Yukon government announced a two-year pilot project that will support Indigenous artists in the territory. Through the project, $50,000 in funding will be distributed to artists in the first year and $150,000 in the second year. The project will also create and hire an Indigenous outreach position in the Yukon who will assist Indigenous artists to apply for funding and develop their careers. “I'm thrilled to see yet another groundbreaking co-delivery initiative honouring Indigenous cultural sovereignty by supporting new artists and cultural carriers where they live and work.,” said CCA Director and CEO Simon Brault in a Yukon government press release. On June 15, the CCA and Inuit Art Foundation announced their partnership in the delivery of a new national Inuit-specific funding pilot initiative, which will distribute more than $100,000 over the course of the first year. The CCA will support the IAF in working with Inuit communities to create the multidisciplinary granting pilot program — a vital component of the creation process.

Want More Inuit Art News? Learn about the Inuit art murals at OCAD U presented by Onsite Gallery and the IAF

Read IAQ coverage of the 2022 Arctic Arts Summit

Get all the news, faster at: inuitartfoundation.org/news Inuit Art Quarterly

Fall 2022

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A woman transforming into a bird

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LAST LOOK

Davidee Alashuak Angutigirk Lake Povungnituk

My introduction to Davidee Alashuak Angutigirk’s Lake Povungnituk (1972) was a black-and-white reproduction taken from the 1972 Arctic Québec Print Collection published by La Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec (FCNQ). I was immediately drawn to this aerial view of a school of fish. Gleeful in its abundance, it also serves as a cheeky play on this issue’s theme of Mass. What a delight to discover that Angutigirk’s original print was produced in rare shades of dark teal and pine green, adding even more depth to this aquatic scene. It’s initially deceiving in its simplicity, but upon closer examination, there is organized chaos in how Angutigirk’s fish move gracefully around the frame, with the negative space transforming into its own winding pattern. Angutigirk draws out the trajectories of individual fish using colour and line, their curving tails injecting movement through the clear water. Angutigirk, who started his artistic career as a sculptor working in stone, came to printmaking late in his career, shortly before his death, after taking a six-week course on stonecut and stencil printmaking techniques, hosted in Puvirnituq, Nunavik, QC, by FCNQ. A noted storyteller with sharp observational skills, his work often depicted the realities of Arctic survival, but in Lake Povungnituk one can imagine a bounty in this catch and a future feast.

Davidee Alashuak Angutigirk — Lake Povungnituk 1972 Stencil 38.1 × 41.9 cm COURTESY AVATAQ CULTURAL INSTITUTE PHOTO ÉRIC FERLAND © THE ARTIST

Inuit Art Quarterly

SUE CARTER

Deputy Editor

Fall 2022

Corey Bulpitt

A North American Art Collection amplifying diverse voices and creating conversations. Image Credit: Corey Bulpitt (Haida), Family Matters (the T’simpsons) #1, 2021, Giclée, ed/10, 30 x 24″ (left); Raven Who Kept Walking #1, 2021, Giclee ed/10, 30 x 24″ (right), TD Bank Corporate Art Collection. Learn more at td.com/art.

Visit the TD Gallery of Indigenous Art at 79 Wellington St. West in Toronto. ® The TD logo and other TD trademarks are the property of the Toronto-Domion Bank or its subsidiaries.