This thesis presents a qualitative case study based on interviews I conducted with contemporary Inuit artist and art educator Andrew Qappik. I traveled to Pangnirtung, Nunavut Territory, Canada in order to ask the 45-year-old "master printmaker" about the art education he received as a child and adult while living in a mostly Inuit town of approximately 1,300 in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Additionally, I interviewed Qappik about the art-teaching activities he has been providing to children and adults, in Pangnirtung and beyond, for the past fifteen years. My research sheds light not only on Qappik's personal experiences, but, by extension, on the nature of the art education models recently and currently operating in his local and regional communities. In this thesis, I present information about the "arctic-adapted" nature of art education within a unique borderland society--a location in which the traditions, values and contemporary practices of the indigenous Inuit culture are intertwined with those of the dominant, mainstream, Canadian culture. / text

Western aesthetic convention represents an accrual of inherited societal perspectives on the artist, the artifact and its consumer. A review of its history and the etymology of its terminology discloses a twofold problem. The first aspect concerns the separation of the manufacture of aesthetic objects from their economic raison d'etre. The second involves the categorization of these artifacts into art or craft. This problem is compounded when considering Western judgements on non-Western aesthetics. Inuit handicraft provides an appropriate model to illustrate the fact that present convention and nomenclature prove inadequate in addressing both intra and especially extra-cultural concerns. A broader and more inclusive orientation is needed.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-105). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Traditional mythological themes have been repeatedly depicted in contemporary Inuit art since the late 1950s. This thesis examines the portrayals of the female sea spirit or Sedna and the male moon spirit in sculpture and graphics by contemporary Inuit artists from three Arctic art "communities": Baker Lake, Cape Dorset and Povungnituk. Analysis of the mythological depictions has led me to conclude that artists have tended to employ two distinct styles of illustration to represent these deities. These two types are iconic and narrative. Introduced by the first generation of contemporary Inuit artists working in the late 1950s these types functioned as tangible expressions of the unique nature and role of each deity in Inuit culture as these were perceived by the Inuit artists, and involved a complicated process of integrating both traditional and "alien" elements. Subsequent generations of artists have retained these prototypes and continued to incorporate elements based on these two influences. The complex evolution of Sedna and Moon Spirit imagery reflects the role contemporary Inuit mythological art has come to play as both a medium of communication to non-Inuit and a historical and cultural repository for the Inuit. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

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This dissertation examines a series of catalogues for Inuit art exhibitions held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), spanning from 1967 to 2017. I argue that the discursive conventions of settler-Canadian art appreciation, especially those geared towards Inuit creative production, have resonances with the political strategies that Canada uses to prove effective occupation—a term from international law—of the Arctic. My work intervenes in this context by showing how art appreciation encourages modes of effective occupation that are not obviously political, insofar as these modes operate in the realm of affect. I first develop a critical framework inspired by Glen Coulthard’s concept of colonial recognition politics, to demonstrate that there is an affirmative recognition politics at work in the WAG catalogues. I then theorize that catalogues’ tendency to oscillate between an ethnographic (contextualist) analysis and an aesthetic (non-contextualist) analysis produces a tension that orients patrons towards the North accordance with Canada’s position on Arctic geopolitics. Building on the work of Eva Mackey, I argue that a mixed ethnographic-aesthetic view of Inuit art activates a particularly expedient form of belonging from afar in settler patron-readers, whereby they are encouraged to feel as if they are of the North, while never having to be there. My third chapter attends to how the WAG narrates the dramatic social transformations that Inuit experienced in the mid-20th century. The catalogues implicitly invalidate many Inuit’s experience of settler-colonial intervention by suggesting that the move to sedentary communities, often at the hands of the settler state, was inevitable and even desirable. This work provides strategies for critiquing instances of settler benevolence that are unique to the art world, and offers a template for how to approach exhibition catalogues as a genre—both of which are areas of scholarship that have been hitherto neglected. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / In this dissertation, I look at a series of catalogues for Inuit art exhibitions held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG), spanning from 1967 to 2017. I argue that the discursive conventions of settler-Canadian art appreciation, especially those geared towards Inuit creative production, have resonances with the political strategies that Canada uses to prove effective occupation—a term from international law—of the Arctic. My research intervenes in this context by showing how art appreciation encourages modes of effective occupation that are not obviously political, insofar as these modes operate in the realm of affect. The resulting work models some strategies for critiquing forms of settler benevolence that are unique to the art world, and offers a template for how to approach exhibition catalogues as a genre—both of which are underdeveloped areas of scholarship.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-107). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-135). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.

This thesis examines the use and promotion of shamanic themes in contemporary Canadian Inuit art, being the principle venue in which Inuit identity is presented to non-Inuit in Canada and internationally. The image of Inuit identity promoted through the arts since the mid-twentieth century is arguably the product of non-Inuit state authorities, but Inuit artists themselves are increasingly asserting their voice in their arts and crafts, thereby challenging the image of Inuit identity to non-Inuit. This project first problematizes the history of contemporary Inuit art, where the construction of Inuit identity was heavily prescribed, and then turns to the shifts occurring in Inuit art to highlight the process of identity construction and the agency of Inuit within it. In the process, this project challenges the static conceptualization of minority identities in diverse societies by both state authorities and majority populations. This dissertation contends that Inuit art and identity are fluid concepts and there must be an emphasis made to permit for their fluidity, to avoid affirming a static minority identity in a diverse society, whether in the public or state forums. Consequently, the effort to assert the authenticity of these intangible concepts is contrary to the ideals of diversity and equality promoted in Canada.