Update on Coronavirus in the North
We hope that you and your loved ones are well and safe, that you are fully vaccinated and, if you are eligible, that you have received a booster.
As of December 10, there were two active cases of COVID-19 in Iqaluit; there are no active cases in the other communities in Nunavut.
Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are being distributed rapidly in Nunavut. As of November 30, more than 80% of the adult population and more than 70% of children age 12-17 have been fully vaccinated.
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What better image for the holidays than Pitseolak Ashoona's Festive Bird?
Pitseolak Ashoona (1904-1983) was the matriarch of an artistic dynasty in Cape Dorset. Pitseolak's artistic legacy is vast; she created more than 7000 images for the Cape Dorset print shop; 233 of them were issued as prints in the annual Cape Dorset Print Collections. Her prints emphasized traditional life on the land, although some included flights of fancy. She had 17 children, six of whom lived with her until adulthood. Five of these became artists themselves -- four sons, Qaqaq, Kiugak, Kumwartok, Ottochie, and one daughter, Napatchie Pootoogook. Her artistic grandchildren include Annie Pootoogook, Shuvinai Ashoona and Ohitok Ashoona.
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This image is a pencil and pentel pen drawing by Ningeokuluk Teevee, entitled Lumaaq Taken to the Deep. The drawing was made in 2011. There are, of course, many variants of the Lumaaq (also referred to as Lumiuk) legend, which contains several episodes. This drawing depicts the “feel good” part of the legend.
The drawing shows Lumaaq underwater, his cheeks puffed out as he holds his breath, and a trail of delicate air bubbles flowing out of his mouth. He is clinging to a loon, but all that appears of the loon in this wonderfully understated drawing are the loon’s feet and the very tips of its wings.
A naïve viewer would find the drawing enigmatic and wonder why Ning chose this subject. In fact, Ning has plucked an episode out of the middle of a well-known legend, the Blind Boy and the Loon. Here is a summary of the legend with elements that are common to most versions:
Lumaaq, a blind boy, lived with his mother and sister in an isolated igloo. The ice window in the igloo had melted, and one day a polar bear tried to get into the igloo. Lumaaq’s mother positioned Lumaaq, with his bow and arrow, and told Lumaaq to kill the polar bear. Lumaaq’s arrow hit the polar bear, but his mother told him that he had missed and had shot the dog instead. Lumaaq’s mother and sister tracked the polar bear to where it had died, skinned it, and cached the meat. For months, the mother and sister ate the bear meat but fed Lumaaq only scraps. One day, Lumaaq appealed to some loons who were flying over the igloo to help him regain his sight. The loons took him to the shore and dove underwater with Lumaaq clinging to a loon. After several dives, Lumaaq could see again. When he walked back to the igloo, Lumaaq saw the bearskin and knew how his mother had lied to him and abused him. Lumaaq fashioned a harpoon and asked his mother for help. He was going to try to harpoon a whale, and would need help hauling it in. Lumaaq tied the harpoon line around his mother’s waist. He then harpooned a whale and stepped aside as his mother was dragged underwater by the harpooned whale.
Knowing the legend, we can see that Ning’s drawing celebrates liberation and independence, and the loon’s generosity. But it leaves us wondering about Ning’s assumptions about her audience. Did she really expect that most people who saw her drawing would know the legend? And, knowing the full story, do we feel quite as exhilarated as we did when we focused only on the restoration of Lumaaq’s sight?
An interesting contrast to Ning's drawing is a 1959 stencil by Joseph Pootoogook, printed by his son, Kananginak Pootoogook (who went on to become one of the most skilled and prolific artists in Cape Dorset), entitled Legend of the Blind Man and the Bear.
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Fifty years before Ning’s drawing, Joseph Pootoogook chose to depict an early scene from the Lumaaq legend. The blind boy has become a blind man in this stencil, and he is being guided by a woman (presumably his mother) to shoot at a polar bear that is breaking into the igloo.
There is a lot to appreciate in this print on purely aesthetic grounds. The polar bear is breaking the plane of the igloo, an unusual choice that foreshadows Mary Igiu’s People of the Sea from the 1961 print collection, where Sedna’s nose extends beyond the frame of the image. Kananginak as the printer has demonstrated the range of effects possible in a monochromatic stencil, with deep blues for the human figures and subtly graduated shades of blue in the igloo, and bright light focusing our attention on the blind man. Kananginak makes brilliant use of negative space. First, he uses it to outline the igloo and the ice blocks in the igloo. Most notably, the polar bear is portrayed as entirely negative space, with the sparest of details – eyes, nose, mouth and claws – indicated with black ink.
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Another print based on the legend is Kiakshuk's Lumiuk and the whales, from the 1961 Cape Dorset print collection, which offers a condensed but comprehensive version of the legend.
At first glance, one sees the pod of beluga whales that dominates the print. But the narrative line appears in the small line of figures along the top edge of the print.
At the right edge of the print, we see the igloo where Lumaaq lived with his mother and sister. Next to it is a small lump, which I believe represents the dead polar bear. The next two figures are Lumaaq and his mother, standing at the shore. Lumaaq holds his harpoon, with a coil of line in his hand. Lumaaq has tied the harpoon line around his mother's waist. We know what comes next.
As with Ning Teevee’s drawing, Kiakshuk’s print tells the whole story to a viewer who already knows the legend and presents only a small part of the story to those who don’t. In 1961, Kiakshuk may not have had any concept of who might buy his print. But by 2011, Ning certainly knew a great deal about potential buyers.
I think that that the artists may have chosen deliberately not to confront southern buyers with the legend’s celebration of vengeance, which is the theme of many Inuit stories. Vengeance was considered by the Inuit to be a moral obligation in some cases, and in most versions, the narrator clearly thinks that Lumaaq’s mother got what she deserved.
By 2011, however, Inuit artists had learned the hard way that southern buyers were attracted by aesthetics, but repelled by some of the violent realities of Arctic life. I had an early carving by Henry Evaluardjuk of a polar bear beginning to eat a man, and the general reaction of visitors was summed up by one collector, who said, “We don’t do violence.” Hence, I suggest that the artists may have used the Lumaaq legend as a starting point, one which would be understood by an Inuit viewer, but deliberately de-emphasized its central theme of vengeance. Seidelman reports that Kiakshuk gave a very abbreviated and misleading version of the legend to James Houston to explain his 1960 print entitled “The Legend of Lumiuk.” In that version, there was no blind boy, and Kiakshuk said that the print showed a man who harpooned a whale and whose nagging wife got entangled in the harpoon line. I also think that it is possible that Ning Teevee calculated that many southerners would have heard of the blind boy and the loon as an inspiring story of the restoration of Lumaaq’s sight, but that very few would know the full context, centered on vengeance
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About
Alaska on Madison
In keeping with our self-description as a virtual gallery run by collectors for collectors, we offer a limited number of pieces. Every piece is one that we would be happy to have in our personal collection, and the description of each piece explains why.
We are happy to assist you with inquiries, with searches for particular pieces or artists, with organizing your collections and with buying or selling at auction. Our Inuit artist search tool is available on our website, and we would be delighted to help you use it. If you prefer to puzzle things out for yourself, Deciphering Inuktitut Signatures will help you to identify artists.
We are always pleased to answer questions or just chat. You can contact us by email or by phone at (908) 487-5757.
Our very best wishes to you all.
Ann and Michael Lesk
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Alaska on Madison | (908) 487-5757 | alaskaonmadison@gmail.com | www,alaskaonmadison.com |
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