Exhibition of ‘Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic’ in India Comes to a Close

India’s National Museum in New Delhi hosted a special exhibition of ‘Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic’ on the first floor of the Museum. This unique exhibition of art from the Inuit homeland which is made up of two provinces and two territories in the Canadian Arctic collectively known as Inuit Nunangat came to a close on January 2, 2011.

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‘Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic’ is the first of a series of events planned as part of the cultural exchange programme between Canada and India following a memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in June 2010. This a collaborative effort of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the National Museum, New Delhi; and, the National Museum Institute, New Delhi.

Inuit Nunangat in northern Canada covers one-third of Canada’s total landmass of 9,976,139 sq km and half of its shoreline. It is inhabited by about 55,000 Inuit people representing 53 communities out of the total Canadian population of 34,109,000 people.

The Inuit history relating to northern Canada in the Arctic region dates back to some 4000 years ago. As the main medium for indigenous art has almost always been locally available material for a variety of reasons, the earliest recovered pieces of Inuit art are in the form of small souvenir sculptures which were carved or chiseled out of walrus ivory. Since walrus ivory is much smaller than ivory obtained from the tusks of elephants, the early Inuit art works are also diminutive in size.

During the World War-II, the Canadian government made its presence felt in the Inuit territories and encouraged the aborigines to shift to settlements of a more permanent nature.

In 1948, James Houston who is credited with the discovery and promotion of Inuit art, took a Canadian Air Force flight to Port Harrison and that is when he discovered Inuit art. He returned to Inuit territories time after time collecting art objects created by them.

Houston educated the Inuit people on the market potential for their traditional arts which encouraged more and more Inuit artists to embrace art as a profession and explore their creative potential. Though the Inuit people have a history of 4,000 years behind them, this should explain why the current exhibition features Inuit art from the 1940s to the present day.

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Today Inuit art is the mainstay of Canadian art and symbolizes the national heritage of Canada. Hundreds of Inuit people who have established themselves as artists owe their profession to the efforts of Houston.

With the opening up of the markets for Inuit art in southern Canada, larger pieces of Inuit art began to emerge. Inuit artists’ quest for alternate material to execute larger sculptures led them to soft stones such as soapstone, serpentine and argillite. The early sculptures during this period were mainly figurative and singular in nature which evolved to depict the daily lives of the Inuit people.

With the lapse of time, the Inuit artists turned to mythology and legends as idioms for creative expression of their sculptures. Their interactions with the international communities exposed them to two dimensional Art after which drawings, prints and textile art began to appear. This gave them more freedom with regard to material, space, colour, texture etc.

Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada, Christine Lalonde, deserves to be commended for her remarkable sense of selection of exhibits covering the entire period of contemporary Inuit art from the 1940s to the present day and representing different mediums used by the Inuit artists during this period.

In addition to sculptures, the exhibition includes drawings and prints, textile art and the emerging audio-visual medium. Two important medium of contemporary art that are conspicuous by their absence are painting and photography. There must be good reasons for this. It is quite possible that these mediums of art are yet to make inroads into Inuit territories.

The Inuit started inhabiting the Arctic region in northern Canada some 4000 years ago. According to archaeological evidence, the first group called Sivullirmiut crossed a bridge from Siberia to Alaska before arriving in Canada. Thule migrants who followed them later are considered to be the ancestors of today’s Canadian Inuit.

Thule practiced a rudimentary lifestyle and led a nomadic life travelling long distances on foot or using sledges drawn by dogs. Their migratory pattern followed that of the land and sea animals in summers and winters. They created tools from local material and the animals they hunted.

Igloos were built with snow for winter and as the snow started melting in summer the Thule people moved to animal-skin tents called tupics or sod houses called qarmaqs. While men went about hunting for food, the women busied themselves preparing clothes from polar bear, caribou and seal skins.

Their first contact with the outside world came about when European explorers, whalers, traders and settlers arrived on the scene. Whalers brought trinkets, tools and food supplies and bartered them for information on areas rich in whales and mammals for hunting. Excessive whaling resulted in a dwindling population of whales forcing the Europeans to give up Arctic whaling.

Whaling was soon replaced by fur trade as European companies established trading posts across the Arctic. Inuit and other aborigines hunted and trapped animals for their fur and traded them for guns, ammunitions, tobacco, tea, sugar, cloth, metal tools and other items of daily use.

The greatest influence on Inuit culture was brought about by arrival of Christian missionaries in the 18th and 19th centuries. Christian doctrine threw a challenge to the Inuit dogmas and discouraged shamanism which was the central to Inuit culture.

This is the first exhibition to have arrived from Canada and it has provided interesting insights into the way the Inuit think and express themselves. The exhibition showcased 46 sculptures; 10 drawings and prints; one representative sample of textile art; and two videos.

It is clear from the exhibits that the indigenous people of Canada usually drew inspiration from their lives and their immediate surroundings. Therefore, it was natural and simple. When we look at the art of the Inuit people, it immediately reminds us of the indigenous art of the Indian people. They are so similar in execution though their themes and material may differ. In fact, the art of the indigenous people all over the world is characterized by pure simplicity.

It is an important lesson in art appreciation that the art created by indigenous people begins with simplicity and evolves towards complication as they come in contact with the outside world and start imbibing new ideas. The art of the urban artist, on the other hand, starts with complicated ideas and evolves to the level of simplicity. This contrast is apparent but the fact of the matter is that evolution in career leads the indigenous artist and the urban artist in two opposite directions.

One good thing about Inuit art is that they are not producing multiple copies of their art. From all accounts, it appears that they are not driven by the natural tendency of most indigenous artists to mass produce what sells. This is a healthy trend as individualistic art creations attract better appreciation and fetch better prices for them.

Because of their sheer simplicity, the indigenous artists all over the world feel encouraged to produce multiple copies of their art. That might bring more money at the beginning but it ultimately spells doom for the artist. In due course of time, his art gets labeled as craft and his artistic acumen is transformed into the skill of a craftsman. That brings the end of his career as an artist and he becomes a craftsman instead. All that needs to be done to preserve and further his artistic skills is to discourage him from producing many copies of one piece of art and encourage him to produce just one piece each and focus on different ideas and themes instead.

For years, the Inuit sought the comfort of the modern world brought in by missionaries and European traders. Though Christianity has been around for close to three hundred years in the Inuit territory, it failed to make any lasting impression on Inuit art. In a way, that has worked in favour of the Inuit artist.

For one thing, religious art is devotional art. For a religion that has the largest following in the world, Christian religious art is produced in every nook and corner of the world. And, numerous pieces of art are created day in and day out.

If the Inuit had used Christian symbols as idioms for their art, they would have placed themselves in direct competition with other artists all over the world who are producing religious art with much more resources and better facilities. And, their art would have got lost in the ocean of Christian religious art.

Since religious art is devotional art, the artist does not seek identity or recognition for his works. Religious art is generally regarded as an offering to god by the artist.

From this standpoint, it is encouraging to note that the quest for new idioms actually led Inuit to turn to their roots for inspiration. Contemporary Inuit art uses myths and legends handed down from generation to generation by their forefathers through word of mouth.

Sculpture has been the preferred medium of Inuit artists and accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the total art created in Inuit territories. Inuit sculptures in early 1940s collected from Quebec are characterized by singular depiction of birds and animals such as goose, otter, walrus, bear etc. These are extremely small in size measuring up to some 15 cms.

From this, the themes evolved to depiction Inuit activities using multiple subjects exemplified by seated man holding fox by the leg, the hunter, mother and child, playing string games, women stretching a skin, shoes etc.

It was in the mid-1960s that the Inuit sculptors started drawing inspiration form their myths and legends. The Lumaaq story; the Aurora Borealis decapitating a young man; the woman who killed a bear with a mitten, remembering Quviuq’s bird wife, the legend of the blind boy etc. depicted in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s are some good examples of this. But, along with this, they also continued to use earlier themes such as women sewing, family moving camp, tent scene, fishermen, men and seals, musk ox, bear etc.

In the later part of 1970s, sea spirits, shamans and animal spirits made an appearance in some Inuit sculptures. This is the period when the creative faculties of the Inuit artists began to take roots and blossom as they sought to find creative expression for constant communication that shamans are believed to have had with animal spirits which helped them in their shamanic rituals. Shaman beckoning spirits, talking fish, raven man steals the moon etc. are some of the recent Inuit sculptures that represent this trend.

The Inuit sculptors have used every material available in the Canadian Arctic beginning with walrus ivory to steatite or soapstone, limestone and stones of very many different descriptions and colours ranging from white to grey to black and from light green to dark green and brown. They have also used other organic material such as seal skin, caribou sinew, antler, skin, bone, whale bone, dog fur, metal etc.

A rich variety of carving stones are found in the Canadian Arctic. However, some sculptors procure stones from outside the Inuit territories such as Brazilian soapstone. Whale bones aged between 50 and 100 years have also been used along with caribou antlers. The advantage with organic material is that, unlike hand-mined stones, they already have a form which only needs to be honed to create a piece of art.

Some of the unique sculptures in the exhibition were a figure created from a whale bone with the help of walrus ivory, caribou antler and stone; Sedna with a hairbrush made of grey stone, dog fur and caribou bone; uni-tea carved out of silver and ebony; shaman beckoning spirits chiseled from Brazilian soapstone; and coat of dreams which is a ceramic sculpture. The fisherman carved out of black stone shows creative use of caribou antler, musk ox horn and caribou sinew.

The urge to mix and match locally available material and frequent use of inlay technique are some of the outstanding features of Inuit sculpture. Traditionally, the Inuit sculptors used crude tools such as axe, files and chisels. And, they used sandpaper to give final touches to their sculptures. Today, they have access to power tools, grinders and rotary tools to supplement these.

Print making by Inuit artists began in late 1950s and the first collection of prints arrived southern markets in 1959. The instant success of these prints inspired many Inuit artists to set up print studios.

The most common process used by Inuit print makers is stone cut print process. It is similar to woodcut and linocut printing processes except that it does not use multiple plates. The printing surface is created with the same stones as that are used for sculptures and inking of all different colours are done in one go. The paper is then laid on the print surface and pressure is applied to transfer the image on to the paper.

In recent years, stencil; engraving and etching, serigraphy and lithography have also been used to make prints. Economic recession in the 1980s made it difficult for the artists to meet the high operating costs of print making forcing many artists to take to drawing as a medium for their artistic expression.

The ‘Enchanted Owl’ and the ‘Owl and Ptarmigan’ depict exaggerated bird forms though the first one is a stone cut image transfer and the second one is printed with the help of stencils. The image of ‘Hunters who went adrift’ reminds us of cave paintings though this one is of a much more evolved form. The ‘Caribou’ is a fine imagery of the stone cut print variety.

The stenciled image of ‘My Great Grand Mother was a Shaman’ and the serigraph of ‘A Beautiful Woman’ carry a distinct Inuit flavour.

Drawings made with the help of colour pencils, felt pens, crayons and graphite are interesting pieces of work.

The imagery of the only piece of textile art displayed in the exhibition was very similar to what we find in the indigenous art of central India. India and Canada may be far apart in distance but this shows that there is unity in thinking. It is like the art of the early man we find in rock shelters. Whether the rock paintings are in India or Africa, the imagery seem to be strikingly similar.

The future of Inuit art seems to be quite bright but at some point of time they may need to do some rethinking on the size of their art works. The Inuit artist may need to think in terms of working on larger pieces of art. If they really want to make megabucks they would have to appreciate the fact that size is an important factor in pricing of art works.

The two videos selected for this exhibition provide interesting insights into the lifestyle of the Inuit people.

‘Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic’ was inaugurated on September 27, 2010, the World Tourism Day, ahead of the XIX Commonwealth Games in October 2010 attracting among others delegates from 71 nations who arrived for the Commonwealth Games.

This exhibition assumes special significance as 2010 was celebrated in Canada as the year of the Inuit and an elaborate campaign was launched to raise the awareness of Inuit traditions and achievements. National Museum Institute briefed and posted several interpreters to help the visitors understand the various exhibits displayed at ‘Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic.’

‘Sanaugavut: Inuit Art from the Canadian Arctic’ has not only helped promote a better understanding between two important and divergent cultures of the world but also emerged as a fitting tribute to the works of the Inuit artists in the Year of the Inuit that was celebrated all over Canada in 2010.