Aksadjuak, Roger; Aksadjuak, Laurent

Canadian/Canadian, 1972–; 20

Spring Celebration, 1996

hand-built earthenware, terra sigilata, clay, ceramic

54 x 48.3 x 47.2 cm

Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery; Acquired with funds from George William Battershill in memory of his wife Helen Battershill

2002-90

Categories:

Sculpture, Inuit

In 1963 a ceramics project was begun in Rankin Inlet and a number of established carvers turned their skills to this new medium. The project was discontinued by the Territorial Government in 1975, but it was revived in the community in 1993 by the privately owned Matchbox Gallery using the expertise of veteran ceramists Yvo Samgushak and Laurent Aksadjuak. Younger artists, such as Roger Aksadjuak, were trained and are now established artists in the clay medium. The WAG piece is the result of a father and son collaboration, using coil and slab techniques as well as sculptural appliqués. Laurent Aksadjuak created the images on the surfaces of the pot and his son, Roger Aksadjuak, made the body of the vessel. The work expresses a longing for the self-sufficiency of the past, a theme in much of the elder Aksadjuak’s work.