Celebrated carver returns home
John Sabourin explores relationship between man and nature in new exhibit
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Monday, January 11, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
John Sabourin is returning home to Fort Simpson to showcase his carving this month.
"I'm looking forward to coming home and showing my hometown what I've been doing," Sabourin said of his new exhibit, running at Open Sky Gallery Jan. 2 to Feb. 5.
"I haven't brought my art back for a while ... (and) I've never really exhibited at Open Sky."
He has, however, done workshops in the past as part of the Open Sky Creative Society's annual summer festival. A full exhibit, though, is a new experience.
"I'm excited," he said.
The exhibition will feature between six and eight carvings from Sabourin's newest collection in a display titled Awakening the Spirit.
One of the pieces he has finished plays on the relationship between man and raven. Sabourin said the carvings further a display he created for a Vancouver show last year.
"(This is) sort of a continuation of the theme I'm working on," he said.
"What I'm trying to do with my project right now is play with animals and human beings interacting."
Inspiration for part of the display comes from a show he did in October, where he spent nine days in Iceland for the Circumpolar Art Exhibit.
It was the first time Sabourin had traveled to Iceland, and he said sharing traditions and culture with other artists was a learning experience.
"You talk to a lot of Russians, and the Sami people of Northern Sweden, and Greenland - you talk about their culture, history, their music and their art," he said. "Some of the Russian carvers carve nothing but mammoth tusk. They brought a lot of mammoth tusk with them from Russia, and the amount of detail and work that went into a high-quality art piece was amazing. I was just blown away."
Likewise, Sabourin spent some time talking to Icelandic reindeer herders, which gave him inspiration for the piece he is currently carving.
"When I was talking to them, they talked about their traditions and reindeer herding ... (so) today I started working on a caribou, or reindeer, with a man sitting on its head and another man kind of pulling its tail," he said.
Sabourin will return to the community on Feb. 6 to lead a soapstone carving workshop for the Open Sky Creative Society.
