Surviving the harsh Arctic conditions and the paucity of social safety nets put a wedge between self-absorption and requirements for survival. The slideshow presented in this post features Inuit sculptures from my collection that portray strikingly, as only art can do, how Inuit coped with death.
In my last blog I stressed the centrality of Inuit families for survival in the harsh Arctic. Freezing conditions, lack of social services and isolation made division of labor for essential tasks within the family a matter of life and death. Yet, as unlikely as it would seem under such conditions, art blossomed among the [...]
Faced with the harsh conditions in the Canadian Artic, the Inuit’s very existence is dependent upon family and community. Food, proper shelter and social safety networks – critical for life in any culture – are scarce for the Inuit. Children are necessary to maintain the family – to hunt and fish among other supports. Larger social groups working together are also key to survival. In short, individuality submits to family and collective welfare. So it’s not surprising that family and the larger community is a popular theme in Inuit art. What may surprise you is the very different approaches the artists have taken.
Everything moves in one way or another – living creatures, ocean waves, geological formations and orbiting planets – and art is no exception. Movement first attracted me to Inuit art, which I illustrated with a picture of a walking polar bear in my previous blog. The way Inuit artists capture movement is what first attracted [...]
I’m infected with the collecting bug, which I probably acquired at conception. I don’t think it’s contagious. In short, I surrendered to my genes, those authoritarian despots. They made collecting an expression of my character. While I am a collector, my sister Jephta isn’t, despite having the same parents and being raised in the same [...]
Reading the front-page article in the New York Times on “sensitivity readers, ” I was struck how the choice of words can have unintended consequences. Read the article and see if you agree with me. The issue is...sensitive. In brief, sensitivity readers screen for slurs, discrimination or ignorance of cultural realities for the purpose of [...]
