{"id":6800,"date":"2018-04-04T22:47:39","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T02:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=6800"},"modified":"2018-04-05T07:03:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T11:03:57","slug":"earthlings-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2018\/04\/04\/earthlings-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Earthlings\u2019 Features Dreamlike Collaborations Between Inuit And White-Canadian Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The people and creatures depicted in the sculptures in the exhibition \u201cEarthlings\u201d<\/a> feel like dreams.<\/p>\n

In the exhibition, on view at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec at Montr\u00e9al through April 14, two trees get up and fight. A man holds a bird (a goose maybe) as his chest sprouts a whole community of faces. A woman with a hole where her face should be holds a mask-like face in her hand. The fur of a muskox sprouts men and boats. A hand becomes a strange crawling creature as it grows a woman\u2019s head and long, pointed fingernails. The fingers of another hand bend painfully back the wrong way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of this work, my own included, as \u2018bridge art\u2019; it spans between things, between people, animals, space, and the earth,\u201d Toronto artist Shary Boyle has said of the show, which includes individual and collaborative works by her and six Inuit artists. \u201cIt spans languages. It spans the real and the unreal. The living and the dead. The past and the future. It is art to communicate, through symbols, myths, dreams, and hybrids. It connects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cYour Humble Servant” (in foreground), 2014, porcelain, gold lustre. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

In addition to Boyle, who represented Canada in the 2013 Venice Biennale, the lineup includes the late artist Roger Aksadjuak of Kangiqtiniq (Rankin Inlet); Shuvinai Ashoona of Kinngait (Cape Dorset); Pierre Aupilardjuk of Kangiqtiniq (Rankin Inlet); Jessie Kenalogak in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake); John Kurok of Kangiqtiniq (Rankin Inlet); and Leo Napayok from Salliq (Coral Harbour) and Kangiqtiniq (Rankin Inlet).<\/p>\n

Boyle\u2019s art is populated by haunted visions of spider-women, new moms, lovers, snakes, monsters, mermaids, families, dead bodies. The collaborations and pairings here spark as her approach echoes and rhymes with the Inuit artists\u2019 efforts, contemporary art rooted in traditions of the Canadian North. It\u2019s an exhibition of earth and magic, uncanny transformations, and elemental and psychological charges.<\/p>\n

\"Jessie<\/a>
Jessie Kenalogak and Leo Napayok \u201cMan Holding Bird\u201d (left), smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boyle and Ashoona began making collaborative drawings in 2011 after their art was exhibited together. This partnership prompted additional connections that eventually led Boyle to collaborate in 2016 with ceramicists Pierre Aupilardjuk and John Kurok at Medalta, a ceramics production and exhibition center in Medicine Hat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really satisfying to make things together because we come from different cultural backgrounds,\u201d Boyle tells me. (She describes her own background as \u201ccolonial settler Irish white Canadian.\u201d) \u201cMostly, it\u2019s just learning to let go of control and authorship. The art world is all about individual genius. So the ego gets stripped down a bit and that feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Boyle was invited to have a show at the Esker Foundation in Calgary, she thought to include the whole group. The resulting exhibit has been touring Canada since it debuted at the Esker Foundation in early 2017. She says, \u201cThis is also on a different level for me an opportunity to make a small gesture toward equality in terms of platform accessibility and opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not an Inuit Art show, nor is it a Contemporary Art exhibition,\u201d Boyle writes in the catalog. \u201cOur cultural distinctions are intrinsic, but our sincere love for, and belief in, the stories we express is cosmic and universal. With \u2018Earthlings,\u2019 I hope to invigorate the possibility of art inspiring wonder, challenging complacency, awakening hope and activating empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Help Wonderland keep producing our great coverage of local arts, cultures and activisms by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Roger<\/a>
Roger Aksadjuak \u201cShaman\u2019s Muskox,\u201d smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shuvinai<\/a>
Shuvinai Ashoona and Shary Boyle \u201cSelf-Portrait,\u201d 2015, ink and colored pencil on paper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Roger<\/a>
Roger Aksadjuak \u201cTrip to Marble Island,\u201d smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shuvinai<\/a>
Shuvinai Ashoona \u201cComposition (People, Animals and the World Holding Hands),\u201d 2008, ink and colored pencil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cAxis and Revolution,” 2016, terra cotta, in the exhibition \u201cEarthlings\u201d at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec at Montr\u00e9al. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cAxis and Revolution,” 2016, terra cotta, in the exhibition \u201cEarthlings\u201d at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec at Montr\u00e9al. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pierre<\/a>
Pierre Aupilardjuk and Shary Boyle \u201cFacing Forward,\u201d 2016, porcelain and smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle and John Kurok \u201cGreek Tragedy,\u201d 2016, porcelain and smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"John<\/a>
John Kurok \u201cHeaven on Geese,\u201d 2016, smoke-fired stoneware.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cClover Leaf,\u201d 2014, porcelain, silver lustre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cBless You,\u201d 2014, porcelain, gold lustre.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cAxis and Revolution (Buffy Saint-Marie with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, May 19),\u201d 2016, terra cotta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cAxis and Revolution (Mimetic Desire and Rivalry (after Rene Girard)),\u201d 2016, terra cotta.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cAxis and Revolution,” 2016, terra cotta, in the exhibition \u201cEarthlings\u201d at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec at Montr\u00e9al. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cThe Shepherd,\u201d 2016, porcelain, bronze.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jessie<\/a>
Jessie Kenalogak and John Kurok \u201cCeramic Bust with Drawings” (left), stoneware with unerglaze pencils.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cWhite Gloves,\u201d 2016, porcelain, acrylic nails.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shary<\/a>
Shary Boyle \u201cThe Mute\u201d (at left), 2012, porcelain, china paint, lustre. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The people and creatures depicted in the sculptures in the exhibition \u201cEarthlings\u201d feel like dreams. In the exhibition, on view at Galerie de l\u2019UQAM at the Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec at Montr\u00e9al through April 14, two trees get up and fight. A man holds a bird (a goose maybe) as his chest sprouts a whole community […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[335,319,334,333],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6800"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6817,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6800\/revisions\/6817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}