Shuvinai Ashoona
A key figure in Canadian art, Shuvinai Ashoona is an Inuit artist from Kinngait (formerly Cape Dorset), in Nunavut. Her work, celebrated both in Canada and internationally, was notably presented as part of the central exhibition of the Venice Biennale in 2022, where she received a special mention from the jury. In 2018, she won the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, and more recently, in 2024, the Governor General’s Award of Canada.
Born into a family of artists, Shuvinai Ashoona is known for her richly colored and detailed drawings in wood pencil and ink, depicting life in the Arctic. With her inventive approach, unique iconography and distinctive graphic style, Ashoona revolutionize Inuit art and deconstructs enduring misconceptions about her age-old culture. Her often large-scale representations freely blend elements of traditional Inuit culture, references to popular culture and her own mystical visions, sometimes grotesque, sometimes fantastical. Imbued with an almost cinematic sensibility, her works reflect her very own sensitive and poetic view of the world. While her creations testify to the richness of Inuit life, they also bear witness to the profound upheavals undergone by the peoples of the North, who have transitioned from a nomadic to a sedentary lifestyle in the span of less than a century.
The works presented in Imaginaires et territoires come from different eras and explore a variety of themes. That said, most of the selected drawings illustrate the traditionnal Inuit way of life, with its activities, values and everyday objects. Characters are depicted engaging in activities such as throat singing, caribou hunting, berry picking, and weir fishing, according to ancestral methods.
Through bold, vividly colored drawings brimming with life, Ashoona composes visual narratives usually featuring several characters interacting within the arid, rocky landscapes of the Arctic tundra. By placing the figures front and center in her compositions, Ashonna bears witness to the importance of family and community in Inuit culture and illustrates the fundamental values of mutual aid, sharing and transmission, as well as the close relationship that ties Inuit people to the land and its wildlife.
Among the characteristic elements that make up Ashoona’s singular imagery is the ulu, a knife used by Inuit women, recognizable by its semicircular blade. This versatile tool is used for skinning and carving game, preparing hides, carving ice blocks and even cutting hair. The qulliq, a traditional seal-oil lamp in the shape of a crescent moon, is another recurring motif in her works. An essential source of light and warmth in the harsh Arctic environment, the lamp is a symbol of life in Inuit culture. Finally, the planet Earth is perhaps the most identifiable motif in Ashoona’s work. By representing the terrestrial globe on the same scale as the figures in her works, the artist symbolically underlines the responsibility of every human being toward the planet, particularly in the context of a climate crisis which, as we know, particularly affects the Arctic.
Pitseolak Qimirpik
Representing a new generation of young Inuit artists, Pitseolak Qimirpik, also based in Kinngait, Nunavut, stands out for the originality, exuberance and playful, inventive nature of his sculptures and drawings. From an early age, he learned sculpture from his father, the renowned sculptor Kellypalik Qimirpik, and quickly developed a unique style, characterized by the combination of traditional elements of Inuit culture and symbols from North American popular culture.
This selection of sculptures highlights a central theme in Inuit art: transformation. This phenomenon, described as the spiritual metamorphosis of a human being into an animal, or of one animal into another, is a recurring subject in animist Inuit spirituality, at the heart of many tales, legends, and myths. More specifically, some of Qimirpik’s sculptures evoke the concept of shamanic transformation, a traditional belief that certain individuals, in times of necessity, have the ability to take on the form of another animal, benefiting from its specific attributes to ensure survival in the extreme conditions of the Arctic.
Other sculptures depict the famous myth of Sedna, the sea goddess often portrayed as a mermaid. In Inuit spirituality, her transformation is believed to be the origin of all marine creatures. According to the legend, Sedna, a young Inuit woman, was kayaking with her father when a violent storm broke out. Fearing that the boat would capsize, her father, in a desperate attempt to stabilize it, threw her overboard. Sedna managed to cling to the edge of the kayak, but her father severed her fingers, casting her daughter into the raging sea. As she sank to the depths, each of her finger joints transformed into sea creatures such as seals, walruses and whales. Now half-woman, half-fish, Sedna is said to reign over the oceans and their inhabitants, deciding, according to her moods, the fate of the fishermen and hunters who rely on the sea’s resources for survival.
In Qimirpik’s vibrant colored pencil landscapes, hybrid, fantastical, and sometimes grotesque creatures roam freely across the tundra and Arctic Ocean. These beings coexist with local wildlife, including beluga whales, Arctic wolves, spiders and musk oxen. With no recourse to perspective techniques, Qimirpik arranges all the elements on a single plane, offering the viewer a rich surimposition of shapes and colors.
