The McCord-Stewart Museum in Montreal highlights the work of Inuit sculptor Manasie Akpaliapik with a retrospective that commands respect and introspection.
The museum room is already not very big, but we darkened it with dark walls. It’s not innocent. The light is directed towards the works of Manasie Akpaliapik. This encourages us to pay more attention to it.
It’s clever. Because the work of this sculptor is rich in details. And in looks.
So much so that quickly into the visit, we feel spied on by the rooms.
These are often characters who have eyes, and often several faces. It’s worth stopping there to discover them. It is also an exercise that children will enjoy.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
One thing may escape us: while we are in front of a sculpture, if we move our gaze a little, we may come across another, who is there observing us in the reflection of the glass. It’s beautiful and a little unsettling, but it’s entirely in the spirit of this exhibition of contemporary Inuit art.
Manasie Akpaliapik is originally from Baffin Island. He was born into a family of artists and he works with natural materials, lots of whale bones, but also walrus ivory and musk ox hair.
He is interested in nature, of course, but very much in those who inhabit it, in legends, in shamans.
This interest in the mystical and the greater than oneself cannot be ignored in this exhibition which can captivate the visitor in a powerful way.
The scenography aims to recall the light which is sometimes rare in the North. We direct it towards what needs to be illuminated. The museum also placed the works relatively low, to provide universal access. All visitors will therefore have the opportunity to walk around it to observe the duality that sometimes emerges from the same piece, these impressions often being caused by the natural material, which is very textured and uneven.
“It’s a first contact. We’ve never seen anything like it, nothing like it. And we are challenged,” explains Daniel Drouin, curator of this exhibition which was first presented at the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, three years ago. The pieces come from the collection of Raymond Brousseau, who died in 2021, when the exhibition opened.
Strange that a first contact still gives us a strong impression of having a good grasp of the work.
“He does this with his soul,” explained the artist’s wife, Annie.
The couple was in Montreal last week for the opening of the exhibition.
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE SUN
Manasie Akpaliapik in his workshop in 2021
For Manasie Akpaliapik, coming to Montreal was very significant since during the 1980s, it was here that he took refuge after the brutal death of his first wife and their two children.
The exhibition brings together around forty pieces. “Montreal is where I started, and to see them back here is incredible,” said Manasie Akpaliapik, in a short presentation. The artist, moved, confided that his grandparents had taught him to “do your best, not to do things by halves and to go as far as you could go”.
What his work demonstrates, brilliantly.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Daniel Drouin, curator, about this piece, The fear of losing one’s culture : “It’s a face, a human face, but at the same time, it’s a horrified face. These are elements of the culture passed down to Manasie that were tried to be taken away from him when he went to residential school when he was young. » After his forced exile, the artist returned to Ikpiarjuk.
In addition to the looks, the cry is also very present. The figures scream.
What do they say? What does this artist say, so sweet?
“He speaks to us,” explains curator Daniel Drouin. He tells us, but at the same time, he gives us access to a culture of which we ignore all the codes. »
Until March 9, 2025
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