"Earthlings," Esker Foundation, Calgary, January 21 to May 7, 2017
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“Earthlings,” installation view. Photo by John Dean.
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“Earthlings,” installation view. Photo by John Dean.
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Shary Boyle, “Axis and Revolution,” 2016
installation detail. Photo by John Dean.
Critical value and artistic success are often ascribed through pinnacle achievements such as solo shows. Yet group exhibitions regularly offer opportunities for more diverse insights, particularly through irregular juxtapositions and thematic visions. Of course, curators constantly seek emergent themes and configure new relationships, but in the instance of Earthlings, on view at the Esker Foundation in Calgary until May 7, the project was pitched by one of the exhibiting artists, Shary Boyle. Bringing together drawings and ceramic sculptures by six contemporary Inuit artists, interwoven with Boyle’s pieces and collaborative works, a key question arises: what is the critical cultural value of such an initiative?
Shary Boyle, “Shuvinai Drawing” part of the series “Axis and Revolution,” 2016
Photo by John Jones.
The symbiotic importance of curatorial and artistic relationships must be acknowledged, as the genesis for Earthlings came from Noise Ghost, curated by Nancy Campbell in 2009 for the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. Pairing the work of Toronto-based Boyle with Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona, this pioneering initiative linked the Far North with the South. Boyle subsequently built a relationship with Ashoona to create collaborative works, sowing the seeds for Earthlings, which also includes Roger Aksadjuak, Pierre Aupilardjuk, Jessie Kenalogak, John Kurok and Leo Napayok.
Initially, Ashoona and Boyle sent drawings back and forth, building a series of metaphorical call-and-response depictions. Boyle then made several trips to Nunavut visiting both Cape Dorset and Rankin Inlet. The significance here is that while many people are familiar with the annual Cape Dorset print series, sold internationally through a dealer network, the ceramic work produced through the Matchbox Gallery in Rankin Inlet is lesser known. For all involved, it’s an exploration of material culture and objects of display that compared with Boyle’s earlier artistry, appropriating and disrupting the genre of collectible ceramic figurines, heralds a distinctly different approach.
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Shuvinai Ashoona and Shary Boyle, “Universal Cobra Pussy,” 2011
Photo by Toni Hafkensheid.
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Pierre Aupilardjuk and Shary Boyle, “Facing Forward,” 2016
Photo by M.N. Hutchinson.
And so the critical cultural value for Earthlings begins to manifest itself through collaboration, building understanding by addressing lifestyles worlds apart. The show, with upwards of 100 pieces, many laden with detail and cryptic narratives, is an imaginative trove, much of which may confound as much as it beguiles. This is not a criticism, but a testament to the importance of challenging ourselves to understand new languages.
Pierre Aupilardjuk, Shary Boyle and John Kurok, “Nuliajuk oqaluppoq,” 2016
Photo by M.N. Hutchinson.
A two-headed ceramic muskox sculpted by Aksadjuak bears symbolism past and present, including the harvest of wild animals, speaking to a doubling of tradition and progress. Animals feature prominently throughout the show, a reminder of the importance of nature and food, particularly if you live north of the tree line in a climate where crop cultivation is challenging.
When I attended an artist talk and listened to stories about hunting as a way of life, Aupilardjuk’s account of eating raw seal eyes as a delicacy was not something I’d have immediately apprehended from the art, but it speaks to a bridge between cultural representation and understanding. Other stark moments of creative practice occur across works, particularly with creeping hand formations that interweave their fingers through many convoluted scenes.
Shary Boyle, "Clover Leaf," 2014
porcelain and silver luster, 4.7” x 13.8” x 7.9” Photo by Dick Averns.
Such tensions are akin to rhizomatic root structures that navigate beneath the surface yet keep reappearing. French philosophers Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari argue such structures are of value as non-hierarchical systems, a point of critical value that this show confronts. The aptly titled ceramic sculpture Giving Without Receiving is a case in point, and Boyle noted in her talk that collaboration stands as “the best form of conversation.” Simple testaments such as these are cogent, and the remarkable achievements of Earthlings should remind us all about the value of reaching out.
Esker Foundation
444-1011 9 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 0H7
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