Swiss odyssey

MIRIAM HILL

It’s a warm day in Basel, Switzerland, and Cape Dorset artist Ohito Ashoona takes a break from carving in the backyard of the Canadian Arctic Gallery.

An exhibit of Ashoona’s carvings has been on display at the gallery since June 1.

There is a six-hour time difference between Iqaluit and Basel, and Ashoona laughs when he realizes both the difference in time and in weather between the locales.

“I’m wearing a T-shirt, it’s warm, but it’s a little bit rainy,” he says of the 24 C weather.

Ashoona usually divides his time between Cape Dorset and his studio in Toronto, where he is associated with the Eskimo Art Gallery.

More than 100 people visited the Swiss gallery during the exhibit opening last Saturday. The Canadian Ambassador to Switzerland, Jean-Paul Hubert, was on hand and gave a speech praising the accomplishments of Nunavut artists and specifically mentioning Ashoona’s 2002 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Arts and Culture.

After some food and a long talk with the ambassador, Ashoona spoke with visitors who had come to admire his work.

“I was kind of shy, a little bit,” he admits. “I’ve never been in Europe before.” Many people spoke English, he says, but no one spoke Inuktitut, so he tried to teach some simple words and phrases.

“They were trying to find out how we work, where we get the stone from and I told them how we have to get the stone,” he explains. “I told them we have to buy lots of gas to go get the stone in the summertime and we work together, maybe 20 people in the mine, with shovels. We don’t use dynamite, we use shovels and wheelbarrows.”

Ashoona comes from a family of well-known artisans. His grandmother, the late Pitseolak Ashoona, produced world-renowned drawings and prints and his uncle Kiawak Ashoona is a respected carver, as was his late father Kaka Ashoona. Ohito started carving when he was about 12. Some of his family’s work is also on display in the same gallery until the exhibit closes July 31.

“I used to watch my dad and just followed his steps,” he says. “I felt better to see my dad’s carvings [in the same gallery].” While he creates pieces with shamanistic themes, as well as birds and inuksuit, Ashoona’s subject of choice is the polar bear.

“My favourite animal is the king of the ice,” he says. “They are very smart, just like us. I usually make mothers and cubs. I like them, they are very strong.”

When he looks at a piece of stone he examines the shape and envisions what he will carve before making a mark.

“I’ve got an idea in my head all the time,” he says.

A representative from the Swiss gallery saw his work in Toronto and invited him to show in Switzerland last year, he explains. The nitty-gritty planning has been going on since March and he has been treated like royalty since arriving in Europe. He left Toronto in mid-May for his first trip across the Atlantic and was taken to Cologne, Germany, and to Paris.

“They took me to the Eiffel tower in France and I travelled by car to Switzerland,” he says. “It’s beautiful country.” He visited museums and art galleries en route and was amazed by the masterpieces on display.

“Holy cow, I couldn’t believe it,” he says, chuckling. “I saw all kinds of art. I saw big ones, and Michelangelo’s carvings, lots of carvings about 500 years ago, I couldn’t believe it.”

Sales were brisk at the opening, he admits, but he doesn’t know how many were sold.

“I’ve been very, very busy,” he says. In the backyard of the gallery he is finishing a carving of a man building an inuksuk — a piece that has already been sold, even though it isn’t complete.

“I have to finish it before this coming Thursday,” he says. “I don’t talk to the people very much right now because I’ve got to finish it.”

Ashoona says he will be returning to Cape Dorset at the end of the month and plans to stay for the summer. Though he doesn’t know where his next exhibition will be, he’s open to showing anywhere in the world.