The exhibition Atautchikun | wâhkôtamowin includes works from artists and writers with degrees of connectedness to Inuk artists represented in the museum’s collection. These familial conversations across time and space illustrate what Inuit art is and can be outside of colonial frameworks of monetary gain. A contemporary artist who represents one of these connections is Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk.
The Inuvialuk writer, musician and visual artist based in Edmonton draws inspiration from the distinctive printmaking style from Uluhaktok (formerly Holman Island) made famous by his relatives, including his grandfather Peter (Aliknak) Banksland and his great-aunt Agnes Nanogak Goose (1925 – 2001). The latter’s work is also on display in the exhibition. Combining this graphic style and bold colour with Americana tattoo flash, Aleekuk creates inventive images that often portray stories he has heard or dreamt up himself.
Goose, Aleekuk’s great aunt, was one of Uluhaktok’s (Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories) most prolific artists, producing thousands of drawings and about 200 prints. Depicted in Goose’s characteristically bold and humorous style, the 1974 book Arts of the Eskimo: Prints describes this the below work as representing a shaman “in the shape of a masked owl … crowned by his alter ego. Artist and stonecutter juxtapose positive and negative images, emphasizing two opposite elements of the shaman’s power – for good or for evil.” The outdated and offensive use of the term “Eskimo” in the book’s title signals this as being an outsider’s interpretation. The print bears the symbol of the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council (CEAC), which exerted its paternalistic influence over the Inuit art market from the 1960s to late 1980s. Despite these external forces, Goose and other artists from Uluhaktok are renowned for developing a unique graphic style.
Additional reading/viewing:
- Inuit Art Quarterly: How One Artist Takes Meaning From the Art of His Ancestors
- Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk Instagram
Atautchikun | wâhkôtamowin is on view in Remai Modern’s Collection Galleries until March 13, 2022.