Welding with imagination
B.C. artist teaches metal work to Cambridge Bay youth
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, November 28, 2016
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Keenan Allukpik has been thinking he'd like to learn how to weld. He's also been thinking about what he would weld.
An old RCMP shack was relocated to the Cambridge Bay waterfront recently as part of preparations for a heritage park in the hamlet. - NNSL file photo
B.C. based artist Kerry Illerbrun makes sculptures out of recycled metal. He will be working with youth from Cambridge Bay on art installations for a heritage park being built in the hamlet - photo courtesy of Kerry Illerbrun |
"I said I was going to make an owl and a couple of fish. And, probably birds. Or a boat, or a fox, he said. "One of our friends is making a trophy."
Allukpik, 18, will be one of a group of young men from Cambridge Bay working to create a series of metal art installations for the hamlet's new heritage park, using recycled material from the dump.
"(I heard about it) a few weeks ago, that there might be a welding program going on," he said. "This is going to be my first time."
The welding work won't start until the new year, but youth recently met with their upcoming instructor, B.C.-based artist Kerry Illerbrun, to toss around ideas for the park project.
Illerbrun's medium is recycled metal. He said the community metal dump is like a "supermarket."
Naturally the youth will need to learn to weld, he said.
"But the main tool will be their imaginations."
The youth's sculptures will decorate the park, along with a large central piece, likely a life-sized muskox.
The smaller pieces will be an expression of the young artists.
"That's what art is, it's a voice," said Illerbrun. "What I hope is for them to find their voice, to express themselves in a way that is not going to be ignored. To me that's the most important thing, whether they do it through painting or music or sculpture."
The heritage park, being built at the Cambridge Bay waterfront, is slowly coming together.
Some old Hudson's Bay and RCMP shacks have been relocated to the property, and youth in the hamlet will be creating interpretive panels to install along the pathways. An art studio and cafe will be opened in what used to be a meat processing plant. The end goal is to have a seasonal centre for cultural shows and a meeting space for visitors to gather.
The park is to be opened next summer for Canada's 150th birthday, aligned with the opening of the Canadian High Arctic Research Station, hamlet senior administrative officer Marla Limousin told Nunavut News/North in September.
"We want to get the kids involved so that they take ownership of this park, so it's their art in it," Limousin said.
The pieces will be made from scrap metal, such as old oil drums, rusty roof iron, steel posts and vehicle parts.
"All the scrap metal is different colours, so it's going to have a lot of colour in it," said Illerbrun. "It'll stand out a bit more."
Standing out is exactly what the youth initiative is meant for.
"(I want) to give them the confidence to express themselves.
"Everybody wants to be heard and acknowledged," he said. "You can do art in such a way that people want to just come and look at it and get some understanding of who you are and what you are trying to say."
The park will have an old propeller from a grounded Globemaster, a military jeep, and the top 20 feet of the LORAN (long range navigation) tower - a transmission tower and past icon of the community that was taken down for safety reasons.
