Maureen Gruben | The land that used to be

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Maureen Gruben at Qikuryuaq, Husky Lakes, 2023

(photo by Kyra Kordoski)

Opening Reception: February 1st, 7pm - 9pm 

Land is fundamental to the work of Tuktoyaktuk-based artist Maureen Gruben. Often drawing on the intimacy of the handmade, Gruben’s work balances the vastness of tundra with the scales at which its inhabitants live with it. Engaging traditional materials, techniques and knowledge alongside the detritus of modern life, Gruben places global ecological crisis in conversation with local Inuvialuit ingenuity, exploring the persistence of this ingenuity from past to present to future.

The land that used to be features the new installation, "Qikuryuaq (Clay Hills)," comprised of approximately 1,000 clay beads prepared by Gruben with the help of family and community members. The number of beads corresponds to Tuktoyaktuk’s population, while the clay they are made from, sourced from nearby shores, alludes to the material erosion of its shorelines, which has reached a state of emergency and within thirty years will necessitate the relocation of Tuktoyaktuk’s community inland. "Qikuryuaq," is accompanied in the exhibition by two works depicting handmade sleds. These sleds have an intimate relationship to land, touching its contours as they effect passage. As they evoke movement across and around the territory, including the potential inland migration, they also echo the aspiration of "Qikuryuaq," to, in the artist’s words, “hold the land a little bit longer before it is gone.”