Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 14/00) - It is a monumental carving project and symposium that will bring Canadian sculptors and Nunavut sculptors together beginning Aug. 18.

Our Life in Stone, phase 2, is a 12-week endeavour, taking place in Nunavut's capital. Phase one, which took place last summer in Iqaluit, resulted in about 20 sculptures of varying sizes -- some as high as eight feet.

"There will be two three-week sessions, going to the end of September," says co-ordinator Kyra Fisher.

Fisher adds there will be eight sculptors from across Canada. The remaining 12 are from Nunavut, including two youth.

The project is an initiative of the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association.

Fisher, a printmaker who will soon be moving to Cape Dorset to teach, says the applications arriving from the south are exciting.

"There's one Chinese sculptor (Honsun Chu) that has been working with stone all his life. He gets one commission after another," Fisher says.

"A lot of people are coming up because they're excited about the project."

Katie Ohe is another applicant. A teacher at the Alberta College of Art, Ohe has made an international name for herself as a sculptor.

Fisher, who is also a founding member of the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, says finding sculptors who work with stone outside the North is not an easy feat.

To find the artists, NACA contacted universities, colleges, arts associations and other artists.

"In Labrador, I even put a message on the radio to get a hold of certain sculptors.

"Anything that works, you use. It's sort of like being Sherlock Holmes. "I enjoy that ferreting around."

Once they had been found, the four-member selection committee chose who would come and who wouldn't.

When the artists return to their respective homes, Fisher says, "we'll have at least 20 more sculptures, so we'll have, roughly, 44 sculptures."

But what do you do with over 40 giant sculptures?

"They're going to be leased to businesses and corporations in town. A lot of people have expressed the desire to have one or more of the sculptures. What we'd like to do to, after they're put into place, is to have a little walking map so people can actually have a little walking tour of Iqaluit trying to find the sculptures."

Fisher says the whole concept of Our Life in Stone originated from Greenland.

"A local resident, Jan Steenberg, brought the idea to the attention of the board (of NACA). But in Greenland a lot of people just carve the rock on the land, living rock. Here, we couldn't really do that because you can't lease something that doesn't move."

About all the carving activity last summer, Fisher says, "a lot of people came by everyday, several times a day. They just can't wait till it starts up again."