Qaumajuq Inuit art gallery opens to rave reviews

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This article was published 27/03/2021 (1628 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A two-storey glass case packed with stone carvings greets people walking into Qaumajuq, the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s new Inuit art centre. Serpentinite stones from quarries on South Baffin Island are carved into an Inuit hunter head-to-head with a bear, a legendary bird with a human arm, lazy walruses flat on their bellies and thousands of other forms.

Gazing at the approximately 4,500 pieces as the rhythms of throat singers play through speakers, it’s easy to forget this is only the archive, and the exhibit itself is up the stairs.

The exhibit’s curator, Darlene Wight, said she spent 10 months designing the case, which allows people to see pieces previously hidden away. She beamed having them all out in plain view, except for a few 1,000-plus-year-old pieces that needed careful, climate-controlled storage.

Qaumajuq, more than 3,700 square metres in size, opened to the general public Saturday. Entering the upstairs hall, the first thing that catches the eye is the room itself.

“It looks like snow,” said 11-year-old Milan Moore, moving her hands to show how the broad white walls and the balcony above curved like snowdrifts. “I love being around nature, so I think it’s really cool.”

Her eye for buildings might have come from her father, James Moore, who stood beside her with his littlest daughter, Nina, held close at his knee.

“I’m an architect, so I’m really interested in the building itself,” he said. “From an architecture standpoint, it’s a significant building in Winnipeg, and this is a well-done addition, I think.”

A range of contemporary pieces are scattered throughout the room and on the overlooking balcony — from tapestries on the walls with what appear to be traditional styles to a mannequin of an astronaut in a seal-skin suit.

“I think it’s amazing,” said Nikki Tomoniko, who came to take in the new exhibit. She said the space gave her a strong feeling of connection.

“There’s a certain kind of heaviness that you feel, especially with pieces that are deeper and emotional,” she said. “But as well, there’s a light that feels kind of like hope and an appreciation that someone’s taking the time to share their heart with the rest of us.”

Tomoniko said she also relished the number pieces by women, such as the circle made of the bones from a polar bear’s paw enshrined in resin by Maureen Gruben that hangs in the balcony like a new moon.

Many visitors seemed to share this sense of awe. One, Krista Stempnick, said she thinks Qaumajuq serves a crucial function.

“Reconciliation is important, and this is one way to do it,” she said. “I think you start to heal on both sides.”

She said the exhibit has already been impactful for her.

“Everything I’ve seen so far, I’ve been moved, or it made me think,” she said. “It’s been quite spectacular to see the history, as well as the art — and the new stuff’s wonderful, too.”

The art gallery has extended its hours for Qaumajuq’s first week. It is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Good Friday.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca