by Anne-Marie Jennings
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 04/98) - The five sculptors working on a piece commissioned by the territorial government want to draw the public into their sculpture.

Bill Nasogaluak explained the concept behind the sculpture is to show the unity of the people through their diversity.

Nasogaluak, along with his brother Eli, Dolphus Cadieux, Allyson Simmie, and Paul Malliki, have been brought together to contribute to the creation of a sculpture which will sit outside the tourism centre in Inuvik.

The sculpture has been commissioned in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, and is the first marble sculpture of its kind in the territories.

The stone which is being used by the sculptors is glacier-spun marble from Great Slave Lake.

"A prospector friend of mine brought me a few pieces to choose from," Bill Nasogaluak explained. "I chose the largest piece."

Eli Nasogaluak said the first step in the project was to whittle down the list of images which would appear in the final piece.

"When we first met, each of us had a list of what we thought should make the final design," he said. "We had to come together and pick out the areas we wanted to focus on in the piece."

For Nova Scotia native Allyson Simmie, the challenge came from trying to find common links between her own heritage and the culture of the North.

"My history in the North is recent -- only about four or five years," she said. "What I focused upon was what the south has contributed which has been welcomed by the North."

"One of things I thought of was music."

For the other sculptors, the images which will be pulled from the stone will represent the culture and history of the territories. Bill Nasogaluak is working on Sedna. Eli Nasogaluak is working on a drum, Cadieux is working on a bald eagle, and Malliki is working on two polar bears, arm in arm.

Bill Nasogaluak said the image of the polar bears is perhaps the most representative of the concept of the sculpture.

"They are arm in arm -- together but separate," he explained. "That is the same way to describe the territories." While the group has come together as an effective team, there were concerns at first in a number of areas -- including dialect difficulties between the sculptors.

"The experience we all have with stone was the most important thing," Cadieux explained. "The project is about unity, so we had to work as a team to blend ideas from individual artists."

For Simmie, the experience of working on the piece has been a learning experience for her.

"We each have our own style when it comes to carving," she said.

"I tend to have a more constructive style, where I'm adding something to the piece instead of taking away."

"I think this will definitely have an effect on my work in the future."

Support for the project has come from a number of different areas, and has allowed the sculptors the chance to concentrate on the piece and not on the details of the project.

"RWED (Resources Wildlife, Economic Development has been really great with this project," Bill Nasogaluak said.

"We've shown them initial sketches of the sculpture, but they understand the piece could change as we keep working."

Support has also come from Matco, Polar Tech Building Supplies, and NTCL.

Bill Nasogaluak said the sculpture is scheduled to be packed up by Matco and trucked to Hay River in the next few weeks. From there, the unfinished piece will be transported by barge up the Mackenzie River to Inuvik, where the remaining work on the sculpture will be completed.

He also said that he wants people who see the finished piece to see the images and the symbolism behind the images -- and not the work which went into the sculpture.

"I see so much art these days that makes the stone look so hard," he said. "People end up seeing the difficulty of the work."

"We want people to think of the stone as being soft, to see the flow of the piece."

The sculpture will be officially unveiled outside the Inuvik Tourism Centre in July.