Climate change inspires artists
Resilient but optimistic interpretation follows rebirth of magazine
Stewart Burnett
Northern News Services
Monday, April 25, 2016
NUNAVUT
Artists give a resilient but optimistic interpretation of climate change in the newest edition of Inuit Art Quarterly.
Artists focus on climate change in the spring edition of Inuit Art Quarterly. The cover art is by Pangnirtung elder Elisapee Ishulutaq. - photo courtesy of Alysa Procida |
The first issue under new editor Britt Gallpen follows and takes inspiration from the climate talks in Paris last year.
Prominent Inuit artists featured in the magazine give their takes on climate change.
"I think climate and the land has always had a very strong place in Inuit artistic practice and more recently artists have been directly addressing issues of how climate is changing in the North," said Alysa Procida, executive director of the Inuit Art Foundation, which resumed publishing the magazine after it went on hiatus due to a lack of fudning. "Those interpretations are broad and varied."
Pangnirtung elder Elisapee Ishulutaq's cover image hints at the possibilities of renewal and change in the face of a changing world, while a photo essay inside the publication shows Gjoa Haven's Uriash Puqiqnak carving on the land.
Also featured is a poem by Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory of Iqaluit in both Inuktitut and English called Tallurutiup Tariunga.
In another article, Sámi artist Jenni Laiti speaks about climate activism and her experience being the first runner in the Run For Your Life project, a relay from the Arctic to Paris.
"We're very excited about (this edition)," said Procida. "It is a very timely issue, dealing primarily with ideas, issues and artistic response to climate."
She said the pieces in the spring edition display a "real sense of resiliency and hope for the future," despite reservations about climate change.
It's also valuable to put the spotlight on artists during this global conversation, she added.
"Artists are largely an excluded part of the conversation around climate, and so putting them back at the centre seemed really important to do," said Procida.
Publication of the Inuit Art Quarterly had stopped in 2011 because of lack of funding, and the foundation was in danger of closing, but Procida says it has come back stronger than before and has been publishing regularly since January 2014.
Upcoming issues this year focus on performance, photography and more.
"I think that we hold a really important, critical place in the art field within Canada," said Procida. "We're the only national body mandated to support Inuit artists through Inuit Nunangat."
Next year will be the foundation's 30th anniversary.
