A Distinguished artist and a notable colourist, Janet Kigusiuq is renonwned for her graphic compositions, her tactile interpretations of Arctic landscape, and narratives that share her experience of living in the North. She often depicted the land around her as well as the stories she remembered hearing throughout her childhood.

The late Kigusiuq established an important place for herself in artistic sircles of Canadian contemporary Inuit art. She was the daughter of celebrated first-generation artist, Jessie Oonark, and the sibling to Josiah Nuilaalik, Victoria Mamngusualuk, Miriam Oiyuk, Mary Yuusipik, Nancy Pukingrnak and William Noah, all distinguished artists. She was also highly respected by her contemporaries, and this exhibition of original works on paper examines the relationship between Kigusiuq’s collages, her drawings and the compositions of her contemporaries.

The collages in this collection were completed between 1995 and approximately 2000, and serve as a point of departure for the discussion of the drawings. They represent the main characteristics that bind this group of works on paper together. Colour, abstraction and repetition are the key elements of all these graphics.

Collage – the process of layering and tearing tissue paper that is subsequently adhered to a  paper surface with acrylic polymer – was introduced to Kigusiuq as an assignment in an arts workshop in 1995. Under the guidance of workshop leader and artist, Kyra Fisher, many artists in the settlement engaged in this activity. It provided a means of utilizing bright and bold colours in their work; a penchant many Baker Lake artists demonstrated in the past. Kigusiuq, especially, blossomed in this new creative medium that allowed her to harness her passion for colour, form, and unique design, and to express it through the textures and fiery pulsating hues of tissue paper. Kigusiuq’s introduction to this medium occurred at a fitting moment; in 1995, in her seventh decade of life, collage provided a means of continuing her artistic expression through colour and form when drawing became increasingly difficult due to arthritis.

The collages are emblematic of Kigusiuq’s artistic career; they encapsulate the physical world around the artist, but they also trace changes in her artistic style. The layers of paper speak to the tiers of narrative and multiple perspectives often used by Kiugusiuq and her contemporaries in Baker Lake. Often, narratives are displayed in convoluted patterns on one page, released gradually, as images overlap or appear in different orientations. The drawings in this exhibition reflect the period that led up to the experimentation with collage. A comparative study of these works reveals the extent to which Kigusiuq’s collages resulted due to influences from her own drawings and those of her contemporaries.

Landscape and narrative are the principal themes of these works. Inside an Igloo and Igloo Suspense recall Kigusiuq’s early style – drawings with the main design outlined in black with colour appearing only in small bursts. These images, however, impact Kigusiuq’s strength for depicting multiple perspectives within one image, as well as her sense of order and balance in compositions.

The main forms of these almost colourless compositions were established through the use of line. In both her abstract drawings and her collages, form is created through the bold application of colour. Indeed, many Baker Lake artists practice this approach, as seen in the bands of colour that make up the land, background and sky in Marion Tuu’luq’s Landscape with Caribou.

Colour dictates form in many of Kigusiuq’s compositions, not just in her landscapes. The strong presence of Woman Who Adopts a Bear may be attrivuted to the bold vision of the paper into three colours. The artist intentionally left the figure and animal mostly uncoloured to distinguish them from the background. This technique is visible throughout Kigusiuq’s oeuvre and testifies to her intrinsic sense of colour and perspective.

Narrative

Although abstraction is relevant in many of these works of art, Kigusiuq and her contemporaries also feature narrative scenes in their work. With much vigour, they depict activities such as hunting or fishing, often breaking down the process into stages. These activities are frequently shown in separate frames, such as catching, skinning and drying fish, but within the same composition; a discerning way of leading the viewer’s eye around the drawing.

Repetition

The works of art in this exhibition denote an astute way of seeing the world. Inspired by objects or events witnessed, Kigusiuq depicts extremely detailed accounts of activities, such as hunting, fishing and migrating. Repetition is ever-present in the drawing Birds and Caribou where swarming birds and great number of insects create a patterned texture, which connects Kigusiuq’s drawings to the tactile surface of the tissue paper compositions.

The use of repetition as a technique has a powerful effect on the overall result of a composition and many artists use it. Irene Avaalaaqiaq is known for her patterns that result from rows of unique forms. These mirror the designs of many of her wall-hangings and translate in a stunning way on paper, as Transformations illustrates. In Birds and Bears, Ruth Qaulluaryuk duplicates animals’ shapes within other animal contours to create a balanced and in-depth composition. Nancy Pukingrnak’s Caribou and Wolves uses repetition to convey movement and perspective, while repetition in Kigusiuq’s Hunting in Kayaks leads to a patterned design that balances the composition; many little birds counter the space embodied by two hunters with spears. In Four Figures, the replication of figures in similar clothing suggests a mirror reflection, which gives a sense of order and strength to the drawing. The subjects of these narrative drawings transfer easily to abstraction as the forms lend themselves to the creation of an effective pattern of repetition.

Abstraction

Abstraction is remarkably prevalent in the works of many artists from Baker Lake. Victoria Mamngusualuk, in her drawing Legend uses colour to emphasize the already abstracted forms of the figures. The manipulates them to fit within the shapes of her drawing to result in a balanced composition. Françoise Oklaga, an artist known for her vibrantly colourful drawings, takes abstraction even further in Composition as she blends one form into the nest and creates a collage of coloured pencil.

The late Myra Kukiiyaut’s drawings embody a unique and personal form of abstraction. Her curved forms and use of contrasting colours are documented in both her prints and drawings. Figures and Fantastic Creatures exemplifies her talents for the abstract and the obscure. The most abstract within this group is likely Simon Tookoome’s Faces in the Land. Tookoome is known for the presence of human profiles in his work, and he often depicts multiple perspectives in one image. This drawing pushes even his conceptual visions to another level as the design of repeated profiles is layered over an ornate background. Together, the colours and forms oscillate between delightful and undecipherable imagery.

Still Life

Some of the finest examples of abstraction in the collages stem from the initial project that introduced Kigusiuq to the medium. Asked to re-create the still life in front of her, Kigusiuq chose the circle to represent apples and oranges. This convention later transferred into other renditions of still life that at first glance are much more about the juxtaposition of colour and form than inanimate objects.

Kigusiuq’s individual style in both collages and drawings reflects the artistic concerns of her milieu and the achievements of her contemporaries.

To view available artworks by Janet Kigusiuq, click here.

To view digitized illustrated catalogue, click here.