Sunday, June 28, 2015

Cape Dorset Art Works

Ningeokuluk Teevee's "Lumaaq Taken to the Deep," 2011, and her "Lumaajuuq's Story," 2014. It fascinates me that artists like Teevee keep returning to the story every few years, only to come up with new scenes and images. These are the second and third ones she has produced in recent years. Davidialuk was another artist who had four or five different visions of the tale.

In "Lumaaaq Taken to the Deep" we see the blind man diving underwater holding onto a loon's leg with each hand, but in nearly all Inuit oral variants he puts his arms around the neck of one or two loons and holds on underwater that way. It makes me think there are oral accounts in Cape Dorset which depict him diving down this way, but to my knowledge none have ever been published.
In "Lumaajuuq's Story" there's no sign of the blind man, only his mother. So I'm guessing Lumaaq refers to the blind man and the name Lumaajuuq is reserved for his mother.



I truly feel drawn to make a visit to Cape Dorset, a village where a wealth of BM&L art continues to flourish.