|
|
Romancing the StoneInternationally renown Inuit Stone Artist, David Ruben Piqtoukun recently completed an exhibition of his sculptures. Each piece has a specific meaning to the artist, which he was happy to discuss, providing a brief education about his heritage. "This is called the Banished Bottom Fish-Man." David begins, "Bottom Fish-Man has a human face with the body of a flounder."
David's interpretation is specific in it's goal "It's always looking up so it's still optimistic until he learns how to do the rituals properly and then he will be returned to the people and to the village." The artist explains his heritage, while discussing Banished Bottom Fish Man. "I'm Inuit background, Eskimo background. People are familiar with Inuit but once an Eskimo always an Eskimo. This is just my own interpretation of being banished. Quite often when I work, when I'm carving stone, or sculpting the stone I have a special dialogue with the stone that tells me many stories. Otherwise stories that you may not read in books but they divulge a lot of information to me." David discussed many of the stories he had heard while explaining some of his artwork.
Continuing the fascinating story, David adds, "The one-eyed people, the Eskimos, coexisted with the two eyed Inuit for sometime. The story has passed on from my father's previous generations. I believe the story, take it as you will. It is the story of the one-eyed Tuktus and the two-eyed. They coexisted until such time as alcohol was introduced to the village. One night at some point the two-eyed Eskimo, [perhaps] the alcohol really stimulated his anger and his hatred for the the one-eyed people. They looked too strange and spooky so he started killing off the one-eyed people. That wasn't good for the one-eyed people who were pacifists, a very gentle people. The one-eyed people got together with their most powerful shaman and they explained the situation. 'We love this area but we can't coexist with the two-eyed people who are killing us off slowly.' The people requested of the shaman, 'if you turn us invisible we'd still live here, we'd still do all the normal things we do, we hunt and trap and enjoy the area but people won't see us.' The old shaman who was requested to turn them invisible said it was impossible but he'd give it his best shot. It worked. He turned all the one-eyed people invisible. At the back of this sculpture reads 'We became invisible for good reason. We are now gone but not forgotten'. Basically the one-eyed people being pacifists, their philosophy was that what you can't see you can't hurt or harm. Now the people can coexist properly in this region. My father says you can go through the region and hear commotions but you can't see anything. It's so spooky and that's why people avoid that area and just leave them. This is my impression of what they may look like." Not all of David's pieces are a homage to his Inuit heritage. Tsunami Soon Come, is fascinating given it's place in the artist's carving struggles and triumphs.
"Tsunami Soon Come, could happen anywhere in the world. It's like a tidal wave. We've recently heard on the radio that Japan was hit by a tsunami in September. T he stone is so delicate. It has a beginning that broke off so I came up with the concept of Tsunami. It has to start somewhere, it keeps waving, it's a waving stone. The stone is so delicate. It was a stage in my carving, about 1999. I thought I had lost my touch with the stone carving so I had to prove to myself that I had control over the stone rather than the other way around. The stone was giving me so much resistance I had to let the stone know that I still had control over the stone. I created this, it took the best of four months and I made the waving stone. If you press it, it will crack on you, and it will break up. This setting here the crystal alabaster, there are little mounds that could represent peaks of mountains. This is a landscape that could be anywhere in the world." "The mirror is simulating water. The base itself is to give it more depth. I use the glass base on wood to simulate water so it's just an extension of that. This is Italian crystal alabaster, it's a beautiful material. It's the only stone that absorbs light and captures light." "The Tsunami itself looks beautiful but it creates such devastation after. It's the wave that destroys beauty. Beauty itself can be created artificially or can be natural. The Tsunami itself is a giant wave that destroys beauty. To me, I relate it to my struggles with stones and stone carving. As an artist you have to have control over the material and not the material controlling your every move so you've got to know when to tell the stone I'm in control then you can continue creating beauty rather than force the beauty out. It has to flow out naturally."
'Winds Lie Still' is the different degrees of the wind, fierce and calming. It's on glass to simulate the wind itself which creates the storms and of life also. To me it's a reflection of the storms of life. The winds lie still is when it settles down a little bit. This is the only time I will ever use this material. I've done it once before with sugar marble. I've carved it and never used the material again. It's just a one shot deal. Same with this, this stone comes from Newfoundland, it's a steatite soapstone. It's very difficult to work with because it's like glass. Steatite has a lot of fine silt and crystals in it. To me I've simulated the wind. It's a ferocious wind that calms down and varies on the bottom. It's very smooth like a rock sitting on water. When it's calm everything is very still, maybe it's the calm before the storm."
Some of the pieces have a whimsical meaning of some importance to the stone carver. "Bear-Man-Woman Transformation, a two headed polar bear, a two-headed bear. Very powerful shoulders, in all it's very dense and heavy. It has to do with it's reflection of my thoughts on marriage. My parents were together for 60 years. It could relate anywhere in the world, like two heads are better than one. In this day and age you have to struggle together, you have to do many things together and sometimes one loses focus and the other gains it. It's always back and forth, so this is my recollection of the two-headed image. The bear itself is strong and very powerful, it's got to have a solid foundation. The bear is my spirit helper I find, so when I carve the bear I gather a little extra strength from the image." Asked to describe the spirit helper, David continues, "In our culture we have such a thing called spirit helpers. You have to identify in your early age or in your life or in your artistic." David points out he identifies specifically with polar bears opposed to all types of bears. "I have been on many polar bear hunts but I've never killed one. I've carved many bears and the more bears I carve the more strength I gather from the bear image. I adopted the polar bear as my spirit helper, for me personally I draw strength from the image." Returning to works that reflect Inuit heritage and lore, is an outstanding work Raven Man Steals the Moon which is actually a series. David says, "This Bettina bronze casting is cast from the original stone carving."
David continues with the story, "As he travels to the moon he got bigger and bigger and by the time he reached the moon, he actually perched on the moon. He started to peck away at the moon until it disappeared but he saved a little bit. Sure enough in the village, in the Arctic, it became complete darkness and people couldn't hunt or fish and eventually children were crying because they were hungry and they had no light to hunt or fish or do whatever. They started wailing at the moon for the shaman to return the moon so that there could be light. Once you have light you can hunt and fish and you can feed the people, especially the children. Anyway the shaman heard their wailing and he decided to spit the moon back out so it became full again and when the shaman returned to the village, they gave him fresh clothing, a big feast and he finally received the respect that was due him. He lived for a long long time, he was a very wise old shaman. This is the story the shaman steals the moon, the Raven-Man steals the moon." "'Grooming Sedna [with comb]'. The hand here is the Shaman with a bone comb combing the hair of the Sea Goddess Sedna. In our mythology Sedna is the Sea Goddess. It's a legend of the Sea Goddess, a normal woman that becomes a very powerful supernatural figure in our culture. She was banished from her homeland by her father. Her father threw her overboard from an umiak. An Umiak is a homemade boat that's made from skins. She was hanging onto the umiak and her father cut her fingers. The story goes that when the demons come, everything is really chaotic, tragedies, chaos, it's really ugly for the village people. The demons, they exist, they take control of the people causing all these chaos and tragedies. The sea goddess is unkempt, she's at the bottom of the sea she's not taking care of herself, so when things like that happen on the surface they know that the sea goddess has kind of forgotten about them for a bit. They send the shaman down, the most powerful shaman, and they go to find her at the bottom of the sea and they locate her and with the comb they groom her back up and after she's groomed, it's like dispersing all the demons, casting them off. Things are back to normal on the surface. Animals come back, people are happy. It's good again. This here, in this case she's got blonde hair, the skin of the stone, the inside of the stone is called Arctic tan. It's a beautiful brown color. On this base, it all comes together. Once again I use a bronze mirror to simulate water, after that story it's like she comes up just to witness the people that are okay and the demons are gone."
"When I work I have many stories that are related to me carving rituals. It's like a mission before I gather more information from carving than I would from reading certain books about our mythology." "As I carve it, it relates many reflections. It feeds me a lot of information."
"Bear-Man Dancing on the Moon," David discussed starting with his fascination with the Shaman. "I'm inspired by the shaman by the stories that people tell me, that my parents tell, older people tell me or the stories that I pick up in my Northern travels. I once heard of a very powerful shaman that traveled to the moon so they have to be very powerful. I reflected on that in this case, to have power like that, and to even return is even more demanding. To go to the moon and back very impressive. I used the polar bear as the spirit helper for him, so he's part bear and part human. To do a feat like that, he's dancing on the moon, he's got that much power why not dance on the moon. Basically he transforms when I did the sculptures. I always use a little bit of spine, you'll notice that in a number of works. If it's completely transformed into a supernatural image and you see the spine it still means that it's human that's my interpretation. It could relate to our very existence too like anyone like anyone anywhere anyplace anytime. As long as you give it your best shot, give it your all, like reaching the highest peak of a mountain and this means you've given it your best shot. That's my interpretation, dancing on the moon is the pinnacle of one's efforts." David has been internationally recognized and his artwork can be found all over the world. "I do a lot of extensive travels with my wife. In the year 2000 I was invited to represent Canada for the Changchun in the People's Republic of China along with 40 other artists of the International community to create a monumental work to be 15 feet high. They've had five symposiums. I believe they started in 1998. In this past September, just recently, I was invited back to witness the opening of their world sculpture park, which has close to 200 monumental works dispersed all over the park. That trip recently was like traveling to the moon it was so long. Anyhow, I'm doing a world tour by the looks of it, by the end of the month for two weeks in November installing a sculpture in St. Petersburg, Russia. After that we are invited to another symposium in Algeria. The closest city or big city is Timbuktu in central Africa. I grew up with the black and white movies and Timbuktu is a popular place in the old movies, so it's taken me 30 years, but I'm finally going to make it to Timbuktu and back." Asked to explain how this began, David says, "I'll reflect how I started 30 years ago. I started carving in 1972. I was introduced to stone carving by my brother. I was fascinated by it. He was carving and using the stone and it looked quite soft. I asked him what it was, it was soapstone, Seattle steatite. It's amazing you can cut it with an ordinary saw, a hacksaw. He had all these files and I asked him 'where did you learn this?' He said he learned it at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska. I thought maybe I should try it. I was picking up stone chips the size of a loonie, the size of a [Canadian] dollar and I started carving it. I was fascinated by it. I finished my first four pendants and mysteriously somebody wanted to buy them. I made my first $56.00 in sales and I thought maybe I could earn a living at it. Stone carving, this is a combination of thirty years experience, and I suggest that for anyone who wants to carve in stone, that it's best that you start off with the softest material which is soapstone and sort of develop from there. The most important lesson is to learn about the material and find out the resistance of the material and learn about the different techniques required. At the end to be a sculptor you have to have a good arm and a good hammer or chisel. It's nice to use machines but it's always important to have control over the tools and knowledge of the tools and use a lot of arm and hammer." David is a believer in teaching those who wish to learn the art of stone carving and explains his approach to mentoring others to become interested in stone carving. "I bring all my stone chips. That's how we started so I let people take the stone chips and take it from there, just to get a feel of the material. Maybe some of them somewhere will carry on the tradition of romancing the stone." |
|
