Inuit art loses the Ookpik
The question of authenticity in Inuit art is a complicated one, and I found myself grappling with it as I took in the current show of Annie Pootoogook’s drawings at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto last week. What does “authentic” mean in this context?
Traditional Inuit art, that made before contact with Europeans, consisted of small, hand-held carvings that could travel in a pocket, or embellishments on the handles of tools. The Inuit were a nomadic people. The notion of a 75-pound soapstone walrus was a white idea, imported into Inuit culture in the 1950s through the work of James Houston and the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Pootoogook’s hometown.
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