![Jessie Oonark (Qamani’tuaq [Baker Lake] 1906–1985), “Untitled,” c. 1972–1973](https://www.gallerieswest.ca/downloads/31659/download/Jessie%20Oonark.jpg?cb=87affbf3ab5f5e7973bb05984912e2cf&w={width}&h={height} "Jessie Oonark (Qamani’tuaq [Baker Lake] 1906–1985), “Untitled,” c. 1972–1973")
Jessie Oonark (Qamani’tuaq [Baker Lake] 1906–1985), “Untitled,” c. 1972–1973
wool felt on wool duffle, 51" x 33.5" (Government of Nunavut Fine Art Collection on long-term loan to the Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2.76.2)
Jessie Oonark, Janet Kigusiuq, and Victoria Mamnguqsualuk: The Art of nivinngajuliaat
Motherhood and mentorship are two of the threads that thematically bind ᑕᑯᒃᓴᐅᔪᒻᒪᕆᒃ Double Vision, on view now at the Kamloops Art Gallery. Be quick, though: the touring exhibition, developed by the Textile Museum of Canada for the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art, leaves the interior this coming weekend, closing on April 6.
The show focuses on the work of three Inuit textile artists: Jessie Oonark (1906 - 1985) and two of her daughters, Janet Kigusiuq (1926 - 2005) and Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (1930 - 2016). Their individual practices all centered on nivinngajuliaat, or wall hangings, a tradition developed by seamstresses in Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake) in the 1960s following a federal investment in craft programs to offset the loss of traditional Inuit economies such as fur trading.
Bright and beautiful, the featured pieces depict the interplay between the realms of human, animal and spirit, and demonstrate distinctive appliqué techniques.
“Jessie Oonark has had a profound influence on Inuit textiles although she only began drawing and working with wool after moving to Qamani’tuaq at the age of 59,” said curator Candice Hopkins at the exhibition’s debut at the Textile Museum of Canada. “Her practice is characterized by its symmetry —which has been described as a kind of ‘double vision.’ Together, the works of Oonark, Kigusiaq, and Mamnguqsualuk represent a matriarchal practice, one that is explored through the making of nivinngajuliaat, and how this practice and their kinship informed their collages, prints and drawings.”
A complementary exhibition from the Kamloops Art Gallery’s collection, Sleeping in Skins: Life in Inuit Nunangat, is also on view, featuring a selection of prints and one beaded front-piece by Inuit artists.
Bridget Moser, “A Malevolently Bad Map,” 2024
video still (Courtesy of the artist)
Bridget Moser: Identity in the Amazon Age
Bridget Moser’s A Malevolently Bad Map takes its title from a rather ridiculous chart posted on Twitter (aka X) last summer. The graphic purported to define what “objectively” separates good art from bad. According to the apparently sincere poster, @oldbooksguy, “good art” provides a “good map,” whatever that means, and bad art, you guessed it, a “malevolently bad” one. (For context, the account is of the variety that that routinely rails about universities being indoctrination camps while espousing the wisdom of Jordan Peterson.)
Appropriating the phrase makes much sense if you’re at all familiar with Moser’s video-performance oeuvre, which routinely employs a dark bordering-on-absurd sense of humor, and is extremely online, with references to such things as TikTok, virality (of the online variety), Minecraft, et cetera, peppered throughout her works.
A Malevolently Bad Map, on view through April 20 at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, navigates questions of identity and self within this milieu, presenting a character played by Moser herself who, according to SAAG, “expresses familiar feelings of unfulfillment and that despite working out, keeping hydrated, staying on top of interior design trends, and living in a time and place of privilege, they still feel directionless.” ■
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