Laura Power
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 13, 2007

IQALUIT - A decision by the City of Iqaluit has some people questioning council's reasoning.

At a recent meeting, the city rejected a proposed plan to build a metal sculpture of two caribou. The sculpture, which would have been the fourth and last phase of a landscaping and beautification project, would have been created by Iqaluit artist Matt Nuqingaq with the help of Ontario blacksmith Lydia VanderStall.

The Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association, which helped erect this sculpture in Iqaluit, is disappointed the city is focusing on only traditional carvings. - Karen Mackenzie/NNSL photo

Michele Bertol, director of planning and lands for the city, said the ground in front of the Tumiit Plaza building, where the sculpture would have been erected, was causing difficulty.

"For the mason to be able to create the sculpture gardens, they need to dig up and they need to prepare the land with gravel so that it provides a good base on which the sculpture can stand," she said.

She said a metal sculpture would have been easier than using another material as it could have been erected on a low, long rock. However, council decided to deny the request on the grounds that metal would not fit in with the traditional art the city was hoping for.

"My understanding is they didn't feel that a metal piece is a good fit," said Bertol.

Nuqingaq, the artist, said he thinks the city should be open to new artistic concepts.

"If someone that's from here expresses interest in doing something new," he said, the city should "allow them to move and grow and develop."

Beth Beattie, president of Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association (NACA) was also disappointed in the decision not to go ahead with the caribou sculptures. In response to the sentiment that this would not be traditional, she asked "what is traditional?"

"In Iqaluit the buildings aren't traditional, the cars aren't traditional, so why does a sculpture have to be traditional?" she said.

Nuqingaq said that even more upsetting than this decision was a statement made by councillor David Alexander, who Nuqingaq said was quoted by another newspaper as saying that elders do not like the stone sculptures that have already been erected.

"I talk to a lot of people, a lot of artists, and elders are usually the ones that are excited about it," he said. "When they were being built, the elders always came by and the elders were the ones that were most supportive."

For now, said Bertol, those involved with the project are "back to the drawing board and trying to find a solution."