Inuit Carvings: a New Story Pucker Gallery | Boston 2
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23 Inuit Carvings: A New Story Pucker Gallery | Boston 2 Cover: pootoogook Jaw (Cape Dorset) spIrIt DanCer | soapstone 18 x 10 x 6" | In654 Inuit Carvings: A New Story In Cape Dorset on south BaffIn IslanD, network, these works exist in art collections all over our globe. just as in ages past, bears, birds, walrus, and hunters emerge Today the stories Inuit carvings tell are not always the from rocks that line the coast. Men carve these animals from traditional legends of the prehistoric and historic Inuit ances- the stone they quarry by hand. they oil and polish the animals tors. these ancestors were the Dorset and thule people, who to shine, letting each burst of green show forth from the Baffin inhabited the northern territories of Canada, almost entirely soapstone. then the animals are released. they fly, they swim isolated from the rest of the world, until the late 18th century. and hunt, they dance. the men sell the animals away to the Inuit art of today tells of a nomadic hunting people who, since south, away from their homeland. there they dance forever, a the 1950s, have been changed by the modernity of western piece of the north living in the south. Inuit stone carvings tell the society, they are settled in modern homes and villages, and are stories of their past. building their own identity in the context of a new way of life The Inuit art of storytelling has endured since the prehistoric and a new territory—Nunavut. age. every element and being in the Inuit world has its own Looking at tommy takpani’s Bear (IN700) or Pootoogook story. together, these stories tell how their chilly world came Jaw’s Spirit Dancer (IN654), it is easy to imagine an idealized to be and explain how that Northern world works. If one looks Inuit experience. Memories of living on the land endure, yet long enough at the extraordinary volume of contemporary the younger Inuit generations have known only a modern Inuit sculpture it begins to tell a legendary story of the past, existence. they have never hunted on dogsleds, never built and points towards the bright future. the particular story of an igloo camp, never moved their home to follow the caribou Inuit sculpture is one that speaks of the history of the Inuit herds in summer months. Inuit today are concerned with people; it is a new, visual form of storytelling. today that story the issues of modern society: how to make a living, gain also suggests that access to healthcare sculpture carving is ever and education, and changing to adapt to overcome social issues new influences upon such as domestic unrest Inuit culture and society, and drug and alcohol and continually adapting addiction. Contemporary to meet modern market Inuit sculptors have influences. different ways of The contemporary grappling with two Inuit art movement conflicting identities: began as a commercial one of the past, and venture. the sculpture one of the present market is an operation within the context of an that spans the whole of unknown future. Nunavut (formerly of the In the new Northwest territories), contemporary sculpture, and trickles down toward stone hunters hunt the south via multiple stone bears, walruses, channels. thanks to the tommy takpani (Cape Dorset) caribou, and whales; Bear | soapstone expanse of the Inuit art 5 x 9 x 3" | In700 stone mothers carry 3 “Back in the 1980s I was asking myself, ‘how will I make art?‘ It didn’t make sense to me to carve scenes of traditional life because I was not there, so I began to carve from my own experiences—both happy and sad.” — artIst ovIloo tunnIllIe i their children and work Dorset’s unique historical leather and tapestry; stone development and geographic shamans communicate situation prepared it for with other worlds. these particular artistic excellence. images recall a past The art of carving is a closely tied to the land longstanding tradition of the and sea, independent of Cape Dorset region, practiced the trappings of southern long before the thule ancestors culture. Artworks with these of today’s Inuit migrated from “traditional” subjects help to the west in 1000 Ce. the record the history of when prehistoric Dorset people, the Inuit lived off the land, who hunted the eastern and in recent years these coasts of north Canada from images have been inspiring roughly 500 BCe until around a renewed pride and desire 1400 Ce, practiced an early to preserve traditional Inuit tradition of object carving, culture. Contemporary though it is suspected there sculpture also shows men was no word for or concept on snowmobiles and of “art” as we think of it today. AtVs, and illustrates the tupilak tupilak tupilak Artifacts from this region Whalebone Whalebone Whalebone integration of southern 7 x 1 ½ x 1" | In642 4 ½ x 1 ¼ x ½" | In640 5 x 2 ¼ x 2" | In641 reveal great attention to the society into the Inuit craftsmanship of small hand identity with carved items such as desks, chairs, and guitars. tools in ivory, bone, and sometimes stone. Among the small Art making in Nunavut is an occupation rarely idealized or artifacts archaeologists have found are also small, figurative romanticized as it is in the “South.” “Inuit existence has always ivory carvings thought to have been used in religious or spiritual been about survival.”ii Sculpture making started as a modern ceremonies by early shamans. these small masks and figurines mode of survival. Carving art sculptures requires hard work and show intricately carved humans, animals, and talismans. they skill, and is rewarded with funds that allow artists to generate may have looked similar to the tupilaks from Greenland in this income. Artists can have homes, vehicles for transportation, buy exhibition (IN640, IN641, and IN642). supplies from the South like food and sculpting tools, and buy or The carving tradition of the Inuit ancestors endured for quarry stone for continued production. Many artists, when asked hundreds of years, and when european explorers encountered about the artistic process or their inspiration to create sculpture, Cape Dorset and its Inuit peoples in the 1770s, the Inuit traded say that they carve stone as an alternative to hunting for food, or small carved toys, knives, tools, and figurines with them.e arly working the few jobs available in construction or mines. carving trade and market-style interaction with visitors to the The most famous and successful artist community in Cape Dorset area continued through the mid-20th century, when Nunavut is Cape Dorset, a small settlement on the southwestern small carvings were sold as tourist souvenirs. tip of Baffin Island. Its sculptures are known for their exceptional The arrival of James Houston to Cape Dorset in 1949 craftsmanship, artistry, and style. of the many art making heralded the beginning of contemporary Inuit sculpture as communities in the Inuit territory, the confluence of Cape known today, and as exhibited in museums and galleries 4 artist. Individual sculpture styles can be recognized in everything from noah Jaw (Cape Dorset) composition, to the type KayaKer | soapstone of stone used, to subject matter, or even a sculpture’s surface 4 x 15 x 5" | In653 finish. All these elements vary widely in Cape Dorset sculpture including Pucker Gallery. the influence of thew est Baffin because the stone resources available specifically to Cape Dorset eskimo Co-operative, established in 1960, on the art community artists are diverse and versatile, rare among Nunavut regions. of Cape Dorset cannot be overstated. the Co-op’s focus on The geography of Baffin Island held large quantities of art was first nurtured by Houston, and was further developed versatile stone which, while immensely difficult and treacherous by its second director, terry ryan. these two southern artists to quarry, provided consistent supplies of stone relative to encouraged the Inuit community to make carvings as art for other Nunavut regions. Stone on Baffin Island is most often a sale, taught and developed a vibrant printmaking studio, and soft soapstone, or serpentine, easily carved with hand tools. with the Co-op developed a market, and sales and distribution Serpentine is found in a wide variety of colors and textures, most system that allowed Cape Dorset artists to make substantial often of green, gray, and black, and Cape Dorset serpentine livings. the Co-op’s activity, led by Houston and ryan, allowed is often distinctive for a particular shade of jade-green. white artists to develop their own skills and styles in a supportive, marble is also available on Baffin Island, and artists have begun enthusiastic, and encouraging community. oftentimes only the to use it when they have the necessary power tools to properly Co-op’s resources allowed artists access to raw stone material carve this much harder stone. Cape Dorset artists use a highly and tools needed for carving. this nurturing environment built polished and shiny finish on their works, created using oils, wax, primarily by Houston fostered the individual artists who would become the masters of modern Inuit sculpture, including Kenjouak Ashevak, Kiawak Ashoona, osuitok Ipeelee, Nuna Parr (whose walrus, IN643, can be seen in this exhibition), Paulassie Pootoogook, and oviloo tunnillie. Stories of and memorials to these legendary carvers have themselves been immortalized in stone on Baffin Island. It is from these masters that the younger generation of artists learned their skills. Sculptors of Cape Dorset, and many Inuit regions, commonly learn the art from their parents and relatives. Noah Jaw (Kayaker, IN653), Ashevak Adla (walrus, IN664), Ashoona Ashoona (Bear, IN690), Qiatsuq Pootoogook (transformation, IN662), and others, are all children or relatives of great Cape Dorset carvers.