Circumpolar Art
Timely and compelling work by Indigenous artists from the North reflects on language, sovereignty and the land.
Marja Helander, “Birds in the Earth,” 2018
video still (courtesy of the artist)
A continued commitment to Indigenous art practices sees the Esker Foundation in Calgary present alluring narratives in which embodiment of place and belief systems rooted in circumpolar lands offer value for our own locus in the world.
Among All These Tundras, on view until Aug. 30, includes 12 artists spanning the Iñupiat in Alaska to the Sámi in Scandinavia and Russia. They offer sculpture and fibre art, as well as mixed-media and lens-based work, in a well-curated project with a stellar exhibition design that ensures plenty of breathing room.
Two recent performative video art shorts by Sámi artist Marja Helander are screened in a pair of custom projection galleries with two-tone snow-white décor and surround-sound audio that envelops the senses.
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Marja Helander, “Dolastallat (To have a campfire),” 2016
video still (courtesy of the artist)
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Marja Helander, “Dolastallat (To have a campfire),” 2016
installation view at the Esker Foundation, Calgary (photo by Dick Averns)
Helander’s videos are so lyrical, emotive and captivating they seduce you in multiple realms. The humour and pathos of Dolastallat (To have a campfire) features Helander, in resplendent Sámi attire, pushing a sled into an abandoned, roofless industrial building, then unpacking a generator to plug in her coffee maker. Overshadowing the proceedings is a towering taxidermy bear, who is eventually offered the steaming black brew.
More whimsy, melody and formal choreography play out during Helander’s Birds in the Earth, a winner at the 2018 Tampere Film Festival in Finland. Twin ballet dancers glide in harmony amongst stunted trees, across the forecourt of a snowy gas station, and down the vast flight of stairs fronting the neo-classical Finnish parliament.
Conceptually, we are all wrestling with which steps to take in our search for harmony, midst a world where nature is increasingly in flight from neo-colonial economies and human overspill.
Marja Helander, “Birds in the Earth,” 2018
video still (courtesy of the artist)
Collectively, much of the work in the show lands on the stark realities of recent decades, drawing from the North, yet deftly invoking global considerations. Moreover, this is achieved through a range of creative approaches.
For instance, Joar Nango’s Sámi Shelters comprises suspended sweaters depicting a range of traditional dwellings and landscapes, cleverly invoking our need for personal protection within larger architectonics. The shadows they cast on the floor evoke shifting anthropomorphic quasi-Rorschach motifs.
Joar Nango, "Sámi Shelters #1-5,” 2009-2019
hand-knitted woollen sweaters in 10 different shades of colour, installation view of "Among All These Tundras" at the Esker Foundation, Calgary (courtesy of the artist; photo by Dick Averns)
With 10 other mostly Inuit artists I could still write about, be assured that gallery-goers stand to be wooed by poetics in the service of a polar but non-polarising body politic: no easy feat.
It won’t always be the case that art from the uppermost hemisphere makes you feel on top of the world, but it’s hard not to leave this show without feelings of solicitude. Come for the art and stay for the journey: it’ll take you outside of yourself and positively transport you to places you need to care about. ■
ᐊᕙᑖᓂᑦᑕᒪᐃᓐᓂᑦᓄᓇᑐᐃᓐᓇᓂᑦ Among All These Tundras and a second show, Channel 51: Igloolik – Celebrating 30 Years of Inuit Video Art, are on view at the Esker Foundation in Calgary from June 1 to August 30, 2019.
Esker Foundation
444-1011 9 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 0H7
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Wed to Fri 11 am - 6 pm; Sat/Sun noon - 5 pm
