Nuvisavik: The Place Where We Weave
Canadian Museum of Civilization
Nuvisavik: The Place Where We Weave, the first ever exhibition of tapestries from Pangnirtung, Baffin Island in a national museum ended recently at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) in Ottawa. Running for about a year and a half, it featured 49 works, mostly tapestries with some drawings, by three generations of artists and weavers.
"These tapestries are very little known works to people who don't know about them," Maria von Finckenstein, Curator of Contemporary Inuit Art at the CMC notes, "They're absolutely gorgeous."
Von Finckenstein curated the exhibition with co-curators Deborah Hickman and July Papatsie.
This major retrospective continues the museum's pioneering tradition of introducing Inuit art to a larger audience. In 1970, the CMC put on an exhibition called "Sculpture Inuit" that traveled to Paris, France and St. Petersburg, USSR. Other large CMC exhibitions of Inuit art include "Inuit Print" and "In the Shadow of the Sun."
"It's truly the only weaving studio in the entire Arctic," von Finckenstein says of the weaving studio in Pangnirtung. "You have all sorts of textile arts across the north, but tapestry weaving where you tell a story—you go to Pangnirtung."
Artists create drawings, which are transformed into tapestry by weavers. "Qaqqait" 1993 by Kawtysee Kakee is the only example of a tapestry woven by the artist who made the image.
Spanning over thirty years, the art form grew out of a 1970 government initiative to try and ease the trauma of forcing a nomadic hunter-gatherer society into permanent settlements. Once settled, the Inuit needed cash to buy things like gas and ammunition to continue to hunt. Making tapestries became a way to make an income.
The work in the exhibition includes images of mythological subjects, landscapes, portraits, and scenes of daily life like hunting.
"It reflects the changes that have taken place in Pangnirtung in the last thirty years," says von Finckenstein. "The elders, the second generation and the new generation that has grown up with television and magazines. They have a different consciousness and vision, and you can see that in the tapestries."
Explaining that all three generations negotiate between the old culture and the modern world, von Finckenstein emphasizes the realities of the day to day clash.
In "Seeing a Helicopter for the First Time" 1979 drawn by Eleesapee Ishulutaq and woven by Olassie Akulukjuk, a helicopter flies over a river and people nearby.
"When I first saw it," von Finckenstein says, "I thought, there's people seeing a helicopter for the first time. They're bringing mail or supplies. I talked to my co-curator, July Papatsie, and he said, 'No! They're terrified.'"
"They saw this big bird making this horrible noise. It's very symbolic for the whole situation - people living this quiet isolated lifestyle and suddenly this new technology is invading their lives."
The tapestries challenge viewers' expectations of Inuit art.
"There has been a market resistance to the tapestries because people don't feel that they're genuine Inuit art. In the very general sense people think that it uses natural materials like stone or bone," von Finckenstein explains, "And it has to be linked to Inuit traditions like carving. Inuit didn't have wool or traditional weaving in their culture."
"We say this is art made by Inuit. This is true Inuit art because it's woven by Inuit people."
Von Finckenstein describes how the highly specialized skills and perfectionism developed over centuries to make beautiful reversible Inuit parkas have been transferred to tapestry making.
"Here you have these great hunter-gatherers that have these phenomenal survival skills," von Finckenstein says, "And they apply them to art-making. So it's a phenomenal art form using very specialized skills."
"Unless all the seams are watertight, the hunter will freeze and die," she adds. "People over the centuries have done tapestries with the threads hanging in the back, but these women refused to do this. So the tapestries look as beautiful in the back as in the front."
The response to the show has been phenomenal. Von Finckenstein recalls a French person visiting Canada describing them as "vraiment belle." Considering that the French have a long tradition of tapestry making, "that was particularly meaningful to me," she notes.
"You could say it legitimizes these tapestries as a genuine Inuit art form - that hasn't been our intent but it has happened," von Finckenstein says of the CMC exhibition. She cites serious interest from two major Inuit art collectors.
"A couple from Seattle saw the CMC show," she adds, "And took a flight to Pangnirtung and commissioned eight works."
The CMC contacted some fifty galleries across the country about exhibiting the works, and based on their response made a traveling version of twelve tapestries. The twelve participating locations include art galleries, social history museums and places specializing in Inuit art.
Beginning on April 15, 2004 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the show will travel later to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, the Burlington Art Centre, the Beaverbrook in Fredericton, the New Brunswick Museum, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the McCord Museum in Montreal, and Kamploops Art Gallery wrapping up in August 2007.
"These tapestries," von Finckenstein insists, "I can guarantee you, that nobody in some of these places has ever seen any of these before."
Published in Above and Beyond, November/December 2003
"These tapestries are very little known works to people who don't know about them," Maria von Finckenstein, Curator of Contemporary Inuit Art at the CMC notes, "They're absolutely gorgeous."
Von Finckenstein curated the exhibition with co-curators Deborah Hickman and July Papatsie.
This major retrospective continues the museum's pioneering tradition of introducing Inuit art to a larger audience. In 1970, the CMC put on an exhibition called "Sculpture Inuit" that traveled to Paris, France and St. Petersburg, USSR. Other large CMC exhibitions of Inuit art include "Inuit Print" and "In the Shadow of the Sun."
"It's truly the only weaving studio in the entire Arctic," von Finckenstein says of the weaving studio in Pangnirtung. "You have all sorts of textile arts across the north, but tapestry weaving where you tell a story—you go to Pangnirtung."
Artists create drawings, which are transformed into tapestry by weavers. "Qaqqait" 1993 by Kawtysee Kakee is the only example of a tapestry woven by the artist who made the image.
Spanning over thirty years, the art form grew out of a 1970 government initiative to try and ease the trauma of forcing a nomadic hunter-gatherer society into permanent settlements. Once settled, the Inuit needed cash to buy things like gas and ammunition to continue to hunt. Making tapestries became a way to make an income.
The work in the exhibition includes images of mythological subjects, landscapes, portraits, and scenes of daily life like hunting.
"It reflects the changes that have taken place in Pangnirtung in the last thirty years," says von Finckenstein. "The elders, the second generation and the new generation that has grown up with television and magazines. They have a different consciousness and vision, and you can see that in the tapestries."
Explaining that all three generations negotiate between the old culture and the modern world, von Finckenstein emphasizes the realities of the day to day clash.
In "Seeing a Helicopter for the First Time" 1979 drawn by Eleesapee Ishulutaq and woven by Olassie Akulukjuk, a helicopter flies over a river and people nearby.
"When I first saw it," von Finckenstein says, "I thought, there's people seeing a helicopter for the first time. They're bringing mail or supplies. I talked to my co-curator, July Papatsie, and he said, 'No! They're terrified.'"
"They saw this big bird making this horrible noise. It's very symbolic for the whole situation - people living this quiet isolated lifestyle and suddenly this new technology is invading their lives."
The tapestries challenge viewers' expectations of Inuit art.
"There has been a market resistance to the tapestries because people don't feel that they're genuine Inuit art. In the very general sense people think that it uses natural materials like stone or bone," von Finckenstein explains, "And it has to be linked to Inuit traditions like carving. Inuit didn't have wool or traditional weaving in their culture."
"We say this is art made by Inuit. This is true Inuit art because it's woven by Inuit people."
Von Finckenstein describes how the highly specialized skills and perfectionism developed over centuries to make beautiful reversible Inuit parkas have been transferred to tapestry making.
"Here you have these great hunter-gatherers that have these phenomenal survival skills," von Finckenstein says, "And they apply them to art-making. So it's a phenomenal art form using very specialized skills."
"Unless all the seams are watertight, the hunter will freeze and die," she adds. "People over the centuries have done tapestries with the threads hanging in the back, but these women refused to do this. So the tapestries look as beautiful in the back as in the front."
The response to the show has been phenomenal. Von Finckenstein recalls a French person visiting Canada describing them as "vraiment belle." Considering that the French have a long tradition of tapestry making, "that was particularly meaningful to me," she notes.
"You could say it legitimizes these tapestries as a genuine Inuit art form - that hasn't been our intent but it has happened," von Finckenstein says of the CMC exhibition. She cites serious interest from two major Inuit art collectors.
"A couple from Seattle saw the CMC show," she adds, "And took a flight to Pangnirtung and commissioned eight works."
The CMC contacted some fifty galleries across the country about exhibiting the works, and based on their response made a traveling version of twelve tapestries. The twelve participating locations include art galleries, social history museums and places specializing in Inuit art.
Beginning on April 15, 2004 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the show will travel later to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto, the Burlington Art Centre, the Beaverbrook in Fredericton, the New Brunswick Museum, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, the McCord Museum in Montreal, and Kamploops Art Gallery wrapping up in August 2007.
"These tapestries," von Finckenstein insists, "I can guarantee you, that nobody in some of these places has ever seen any of these before."
Published in Above and Beyond, November/December 2003
