Atautchikun | wȃhkôtamowin
Inuit art has been influenced and shaped by settlers since contact. James Houston’s 1951 pamphlet Sunuyuksuk: Eskimo Handicrafts, for example, suggested materials and subject matter that Inuit should use to appeal to the southern market. Although ultimately unsuccessful in its aims, Sunuyuksuk helped to initiate ideas of “authenticity” that persist to this day, creating a false canon of Inuit art.
Event/Exhibition meta autogenerated block.
When
October 30, 2021 – March 13, 2022
Where
Remai Modern
Atautchikun | wȃhkôtamowin highlights the fact that Inuit have always engaged in and responded to contemporary dialogues, media, and technologies. The exhibition presents works from Remai Modern’s permanent collection that do not fit stereotypical expectations of Inuit art. In their use of abstraction, colour, style, and content, these works push against the notion of a culture frozen in time and challenge parochial conventions.
To acknowledge the presence of large collections of Inuit art housed across the Prairies, and to honour those whose lands the Remai Modern occupies, artists with ancestral connections to the region have been invited to create new work or alter existing works for the exhibition.
Additionally, Atautchikun | wȃhkôtamowin features new works that were commissioned from artists with connections to Inuk artists represented in the museum’s collection. These familial conversations across time and space illustrate what Inuit art is and can be outside of colonial frameworks that focus on monetary gain.
In keeping with the exhibition’s themes, the works by contemporary artists Kyle Natkusiak Aleekuk, Tony Anguhalluq, Annie Beach, Tenille Campbell, Tarralik Duffy, Amanda Strong, and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory speak to Indigenous autonomy, contemporary experiences, and the artists’ visions for the future. It is our hope that, with the inclusion of artists connected by land and kin, Atautchikun | wȃhkôtamowin will continue a generative discussion on the threads that tie Inuit to Indigenous communities of the south.
Media Partner – Saskatoon Star Phoenix
Curatorial Team
Guest curated by Missy LeBlanc and Kablusiak with support from Tarah Hogue, Curator (Indigenous Art), Remai Modern.