WAG unveils two new galleries

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This article was published 09/12/2019 (2128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is unveiling two new Indigenous art exhibits, titled subsist and Δ.
subsist explores the “discussions surrounding the seal hunt, western globalization policies, and the economy.” While Δ, which means “I” in Inuktitut and Anishininiwak syllabics, aims to showcase both cultures, as they participated in a cultural exchange in the ’70s.

The shows are curated by Jaimie Isaac, WAG curator of Indigenous and contemporary art, and Jocelyn Piirainen, WAG assistant curator of Inuit art.

Isaac said Δ aims to spark a lot of conversations, including the history of syllabics.

“There are many layers of conversation and narrative in the show … It brings up historical questioning of where syllabics came from,” Isaac said. “There’s this idea that syllabics were invented by missionaries, with some of the work we’ve displayed here, we’re showing there’s a much more visual connection to Indigenous culture.”

The identity of the creator of the Cree syllabic system, which was adopted into other Indigenous cultures, is currently being debated by scholars. Originally, the story was that the system was created by a missionary by the name of James Evans, but there has been very little evidence supporting the story. Isaac said the exhibit aims to recognize the Indigenous languages that were lost due to colonialism, as well as the culture that still exists today.

Meanwhile, subsist is a more direct exhibit, featuring works that challenge controversies surrounding Indigenous life, such as the Inuit practice of seal hunting. The exhibit features works such as Maureen Gruben’s Breathing Hole, a collection of 18,000 sealskin pins hand-fixed onto 40 squares, which shows the work that went into seal hunting, and how it was a way of life for the Inuit culture.

The exhibit was curated from the government of Nunavut’s fine art collection as well as the WAG’s private collection of exhibits.

subsist was co-curated by Piirainen, who chose works that would complement and challenge Breathing Hole.

Piirainen said it was fascinating how the Inuit used seal skin in everyday life.

“In the government of Nunavut fine art collection, they had a set of wonderful dolls, all dressed in traditional clothing, but made with seal skin parkas,” Piirainen said. “They’re really beautiful, and I thought it really fit well with the idea of subsistence, and thinking about how the Inuit used the whole seal, not just the meat, but everything.”

The exhibit draws parallels between the controversy surrounding seal hunting and the near-extinction of the American bison. subsist features Dana Claxton’s exhibit Buffalo Bone China, which evokes the Canadian government’s efforts to starve Indigenous Canadians by decimating the buffalo populations.

The two exhibits lead up to the opening of the WAG’s Inuit Art Centre in 2020. For more information, visit wag.ca.