Memories: An Ancient Past Abraham Anghik Ruben (Inuvialuit, b. 1951) Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, 2010. Whale skull, Brazilian soapstone and cedar; 69.3" x 81.5" x 24.4" Collection of Kipling Gallery, Ont., Canada.
MERGING ANCIENT MEMORIES A
s a little boy growing up in Canada’s Northwest Ter- ritories, Abraham Anghik Ruben heard the creation stories of his tribe, the Inu- vialuit (“the real people”),
alongside the legends of another Arctic people, the Viking Norse. Now, as a master sculptor and craftsman, Ruben illustrates the parallels of these two northern cultures by weaving together elements from each mytho- logical landscape. Norse sagas about Odin, the god of war, and Thor, the god of thunder, entwine with Inuit tales about Sedna, the god- dess of the sea, and other animal and earthly spirits to create a shared Arctic history about exploration, migration and change. “At the time of first contact, the Inuit and
the Vikings held similar spiritual and religious beliefs through their respective practices of shamanism,” Ruben explains in an artist’s statement from 2008. “As a storyteller, I have sought to bring life to these ancient voices from a time when these two northern people
held a reverence for the land and for all living things therein.” For Ruben, these ancient voices are not so
distant. Born in 1951 in a camp near Paulatuk (“place of soot”), he spent his early childhood traveling with his family across vast expanses of land and sea, hunting caribou, polar bear, musk-oxen and beluga whales, and “living to the ancient rhythms of life passed down through the generations.” This traditional nomadic upbringing forged cultural and spiritual ties to his ancestors as well as to the Arctic. Ruben draws another parallel to this not-so-distant past by primarily working in stone, wood, bronze and bone – the very same natural materials that long-ago hunters, whalers and seafarers first used to survive. His sculpture Memories: An Ancient Past
contains the remnants of a massive whale skull that his nephew discovered just 30 miles up the coast from Paulatuk. The figures on the top depict the world of the Inuvialuit. On one side, a mother caresses her child while protecting a small shaman’s apprentice
beneath her hair. Because the Inuit regarded children as deceased relatives reborn, both mother and child enjoyed special reverence in the community. On the other side is an Inuit hunter standing at the prow of his umiak, a traditional Arctic boat, ready to harpoon a whale. At the center is a shaman with a hollow head and chest, representing his ability to travel between the physical and spiritual worlds. Below, Sedna opens her arms to reveal missing fingers that were cut off by her father to become different creatures of the sea. Memories: An Ancient Past is part of the
museum’s new exhibition, Arctic Journeys/ Ancient Memories: The Sculpture of Abraham Anghik Ruben. The exhibition opens Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C., and is on view in the Sealaska Gallery, Second Level, through Jan. 3, 2013. It is presented in conjunction with the 18th
Inuit Studies Conference Oct. 24-28 in Washington, D.C. — Molly Stephey SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 51
PHOTO COURTESY OF KIPLING GALLERY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
