Imagery in Inuit Art
Inuit were making sculptural works long before James Houston presided over the birth of the contemporary art industry. Working within the limits of available materials (mainly ivory and bone) and tools (mostly handmade), they crafted ornaments and toys, utilizing images from their everyday lives. To a certain extent, the subject of Inuit sculpture continues to be constrained by available materials and tools. The shape, size, and hardness of stone, for instance, dictate what can be done with it, although Inuit carvers succeed — surprisingly often — in rising to the challenge of producing original work.
Expression is also limited by the medium. Janet Berlo, for instance, has contrasted “the wealth of data about northern life, self representation, gender relations, and other concerns of aboriginal life” found in drawings with the “decorative, uncomplicated, and simple” information to be gleaned from prints (Berlo 1993:5).
Even with the limitations of available supplies and media, Inuit would more often than not use art to tell stories. As they often remind us, theirs is an oral culture. The making of art has taken the place of a written language in recording legends, events, and a way of life that is unknown to the younger generation. As Nunavik artist Paulosie Kasadluak said: “What we show in our carving is the life we have lived in the past right up to today” (“Nothing Marvellous,” in Port Harrison/Inoucdjouac [catalogue]. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1977:21). It has, however, long been the case that hunting and domestic scenes from a past way of life find expression in artwork, while more contemporary imagery is used less frequently.
There are artists —and their numbers may be growing — whose work is more personally expressive. Although Manasie Akpaliapik has talked about a desire to record legends, which, he said, “are important to us [Inuit] because we use them as guide posts to the old days” (IAQ 1990:11), he has also confided that artmaking is “healing” for him (Ayre 1993:38). He has also ventured into social commentary: one of his well-known works, in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, depicts a despairing face with a bottle of alcohol emerging from its head, intended to convey the artist’s conviction that alcohol is contributing to the death of Inuit culture.
Social commentary has not, however, been a frequent feature of Inuit art. In part, this is because of what Terry Ryan, longtime northern arts advisor, has referred to as a public fixation on so-called traditional art, by which is meant the Inuit way of life as it was when the world “discovered” it in the mid-20th century. It is not unusual to see repetitive work, even from highly talented artists. It is difficult to explain the virtues of innovation and experimentation to people who can sell large, highly polished and handsomely carved stone bears for several thousand dollars each.
While the market pressure for imagery from a past way of life is undoubtedly a powerful influence, artists also play a role in the continuing production of what might be called “memory art.” Referring to their fear of losing their culture, if not their identity, Nunatsiavut artist Gilbert Hay said several years ago: “Look at us today. For the last 150 or 200 years our culture has been sabotaged by you guys, your values. I’m wearing your clothing. Any culture tries to hold onto what it’s losing. We were and still are trying to document our own history” (IAQ 1990:11).
Mutually reinforcing factors support the repetition of “traditional” imagery — the hunter with the bow and arrow and the woman flensing the skins — but, over the years, a few artists have successfully incorporated such modern imagery as airplanes (Pudlo Pudlat), drunkenness (Manasie Akpaliapik et al.), and residential school angst (David Ruben Piqtoukun). Renegades do, however, leave themselves open to dismissal. To quote from the 1997 Transitions exhibit organized by the federal government, even though Inuit art is not “simply arctic animals and scenes from the past,” (July Papatsie) it is sometimes dismissed as “unauthentic” when it incorporates “noticeable signs of modernity” (Barry Ace). July Papatsie, co-curator of the travelling exhibition, spoke for a growing number of artists when he said that Inuit want to be “modern and experimental” (Transitions: Contemporary Canadian Indian and Inuit Art [catalogue]. Ottawa: Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, 1997:4–8).
Some may be stretching the boundaries of what is expected, but Inuit have to work harder than most to have their innovations accepted (Seagrave 1998:4–15). There is a resistance to their drawing on western imagery, and the market has been slow to accept “modern” work. In recent years, however, there have been several well-promoted exhibitions of work by Inuit artists who are breaking free of constraining conventions. Annie Pootoogook’s depictions of contemporary Inuit life include Biblical references, ATMs, Ritz crackers, and Saddam Hussein — not the sort of stuff we have come to expect from Inuit.
While some, with the support of progressive marketing agents, are attracting mainstream attention for their work, the continuing focus on economic development has resulted in “carving factories” like the Jessie Oonark Arts and Crafts Centre, which opened in Baker Lake in 1992 to produce standardized carvings to be marketed as “gifts.” The project was aborted later in the face of a groundswell of opposition from artists, dealers, and others, but such attempts continue, the latest being the Nunavut government’s arrangement with organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympics to have artists produce up to 40,000 inuksuit. They were not to be mass-produced, but nonetheless two sizes were recommended.
This “production mentality,” as Terry Ryan called it, is counterproductive to the creation of expressive art (IAQ 2004:32). In a very early article in Inuit Art Quarterly, art historian Hal Opperman wrote about the Inuit interface with the modern world, which, ideally, results in transformed creativity and expression (Opperman 1986:1–4). Unfortunately, that same interface involves exposure to mass production strategies, which, if implemented, will demoralize the artists and destabilize the market. Given the unrelenting challenges to survive that artists face every day, it is difficult to resist get-rich-quick opportunities. There are, however, always those who want to make art — how they want, with what they want — and we have the elephant to prove it!
Marybelle Mitchell, editor-in-chief of Inuit Art Quarterly
May 2011
References
Ayre, John
1995 (Spring) “Silas Qayaqjuaq Wants to Share Ideas with Other Artists”
1993 (Winter) “Carving is Healing to Me: An Interview with Manasie Akpaliapik”
Berlo, Janet
1993 (Winter) “Autobiographical Impulses and Female Identity in the Drawings of Napachie Pootoogook”
Dyck, Sandra
2009 (Winter) “Shuvinai Ashoona: Drawings”
Feheley, Patricia
2004 (Summer) “Modern Language: The Art of Annie Pootoogook”
Fisher, Kyra Vladykov
2010 (Spring/Summer) “Uqqurmiut: New Work by Four Pangnirtung Artists”
Gustavison, Susan
2009 (Fall) “The Sea Woman: Sedna in Inuit Shamanism and Art in the Eastern Arctic”
1999 (Summer) “Northern Rock: Contemporary Inuit Stone Sculpture”
Hessel, Ingo
1990 (Winter) “Arviat Stone Sculpture: Born of the Struggle with an Uncompromising Medium”
Igloliorte, Heather
2010 (Spring/Summer) “Inuit Art: Markers of Cultural Resilience”
Kardosh, Robert
2008 (Winter) “The New Generation: A Radical Defiance”
Lewin, Michelle
2008 (Spring) “Breaking Ground: Oil Stick Drawings from Cape Dorset”
Martijn, Charles A.
1997 (Winter) “Ancient People of the Arctic”
Mitchell, Marybelle
1998 (Winter) “Constructing Cultural Forms of Their Own Choosing”
1998 (Spring) “Not Just Arctic Animals and Scenes from the Past”
1996 (Winter) “Exploring the Fall-out”
1991 (Summer) “Seven Artists in Ottawa”
Mitchell, Marybelle & Maria von Finckenstein
1998 (Fall) “Making Art in Nunavik: A Brief Historical Overview”
Opperman, Hal
1986 (Summer) “The Inuit Phenomenon in Art-Historical Context”
Root, Deborah
2008 (Summer) “Inuit Art and the Limits of Authenticity”
Routledge, Marie & Ingo Hessel
1990 (Summer) “Regional Diversity in Contemporary Inuit Sculpture”
Seagrave, Annalisa R.
1998 (Winter) “Regenerations: The Graphic Art of Three Young Artists”
Tunis, Roslyn
2001 (Fall) “The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture”
Vorano, Norman
2008 (Fall) “Inuit Men, Erotic Art: Certain Indecencies… That Need Not Here Be Mentioned”
2004 (Fall/Winter) “Creators: Negotiating the Art World for Over 50 Years”
Inuit Art Quarterly
2010 (Spring/Summer) “Itee Pootoogook: ‘A Comfort Level in the Medium’”
2004 (Summer) “Terry Ryan Challenges Government to Stop ‘Deterioration’ of Inuit Art”
1990 (Spring) “Speaking for Themselves: Eight Inuit Artists Compare Notes during a Seminar Organized by the Inuit Art Foundation”
Selected references from Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ)
Editorials
1996, Exploring the Fall-out, vol. 11, no. 4(winter):3, by Marybelle Mitchell 356.45 Kb - 1998, Not Just Arctic Animals and Scenes from the Past, vol. 13, no. 1(spring):3, by Marybelle Mitchell 794.18 Kb
- 1998, Constructing Cultural Forms of Their Own Choosing, vol. 13, no. 4(winter):2, by Marybelle Mitchell 761.56 Kb
Features
- 1990, Arviat Stone Sculpture: Born of the Struggle with an Uncompromising Medium, vol. 5, no. 1(winter):4, by Ingo Hessel 3.00 Mb
- 1990, Regional Diversity in Contemporary Inuit Sculpture, vol. 5, no. 3(summer):10, by Marie Routledge & Ingo Hessel 5.75 Mb
- 1991, Seven Artists in Ottawa, vol. 6, no. 3(summer):6, by Marybelle Mitchell 5.23 Mb
- 1993, Autobiographical Impulses and Female Identity in the Drawings of Napachie Pootoogook, vol. 8, no. 4(winter):5, by Janet Berlo 3.79 Mb
- 1998, Making Art in Nunavik: A Brief Historical Overview, vol. 13, no. 3(fall):4 , by Marybelle Mitchell & Maria von Finckenstein 10.39 Mb
- 2004, Modern Language: The Art of Annie Pootoogook, vol. 19, no. 2(summer):11, by Patricia Feheley 2.84 Mb
- 2004, Creators: Negotiating the Art World for Over 50 Years, vol. 19, no. 3&4(fall/winter):9, by Norman Vorano 6.25 Mb
Interviews
- 1993, Carving is Healing to Me: An Interview with Manasie Akpaliapik, vol. 8, no. 4(winter):34, by John Ayre 8.95 Mb
- 1995, Silas Qayaqjuaq Wants to Share Ideas With Other Artists, vol. 10, no. 1(spring):22 1.91 Mb
Reviews
- 1997, Ancient People of the Arctic, vol. 12, no. 4(winter):30, by Charles A. Martijn 1.35 Mb
- 1999, Northern Rock: Contemporary Inuit Stone Sculpture, vol. 14, no. 2(summer):32, by Susan Gustavison 1.24 Mb
- 2001, The Art of Research: Nelson Graburn and the Aesthetics of Inuit Sculpture, vol. 16, no. 3(fall):24, by Roslyn Tunis 2.40 Mb