Tivi Illisituk (b. 1933)

ROOTS

Born in Salluit in 1933.

WHEN AND HOW HE GOT STARTED

Inspired by the success of carvers in neighbouring communities such as Inukjuak and Puvirnituq, the Hudson’s Bay Company began to encourage residents to take up carving in Salluit as early as 1952. Ilisituk began carving in 1954, though he recalls his first attempts as being unsuccessful (Roberts 1976: 29). He persevered, however, and eventually became known as one of Salluit’s most gifted carvers.

MEDIA

Sculpture, prints.

THEMES

An adept hunter and provider to his family of nine, it is not surprising that the majority of Ilisituk’s work deals with hunting themes. He pays special attention to the act of returning from the hunt and many of his early works deal specifically with this subject matter.

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT

Like many of the early carvings from Salluit, Ilisituk’s sculptures are characterized by their use of the light grey stone harvested from the nearby Kovik River. His early pieces from the 1950s and 1960s are particularly accomplished and feature massive yet elegantly portrayed figures as they tend to their everyday duties. Women tend to babies; men care for their dogs; hunters return triumphant from the hunt. Carefully incised lines delineate the folds and creases in the typically bulky fabric of the amauti, and are also used to render facial features and the patterned lines of a woman’s braided hair. While highlighting the descriptive elements of a piece, these etched markings also serve to imbue each piece with a sense of movement and depth.

Ilisituk’s work from the 1970s onward is noticeably less rhythmic and focuses mainly on animals and hunters. Ilisituk continued to incorporate incised lines to achieve a sense of dynamism, but the results are somewhat less striking. Perhaps discouraged by the lack of demand for the raw, often-unpolished carvings which were typical of Salluit, Ilisituk carved less prolifically in his later years and often worked in stone that was not indigenous to the area. In an online exhibition titled Nunavik North of 60˚, Darlene Coward Wight writes that:

. . .in 1957 the HBC interpreted a decline in sales as consumer resistance to the unpolished grey carving stone, and buying was halted. This, combined with a declining supply of stone at local quarry sites, resulted in a diminished enthusiasm among carvers for creating quality sculptures. Renewed interest by the HBC later was not sufficient incentive to restore creative energies to the level of the early period of 1952–57.

In contrast to his masterful sculptural work, at first glance Ilisituk’s prints are decidedly more simplistic. Invited to participate in an initiative which set out to introduce artists from across Nunavik to printmaking methods and techniques, Ilisituk produced two pieces for the inaugural release of Arctic Québec collection. While one work depicts a typical hunting scene, the other piece is much more controversial, although the power of the image is belied by the two-dimensionality of the work. A hulking male figure gropes at a wary woman while holding a bottle marked imialuk in front of the couple. Alcohol (or imialuk, as it is referred to in Nunavik) had been prevalent in Arctic communities for some time, although its negative effects were rarely portrayed in art. Described as “a man of some reticence” (Roberts 1976: 29), Ilisituk was nonetheless willing to take on this taboo subject.

FIRST GAINED ATTENTION

Although he began carving in the mid 1950s, Ilisituk’s work was not officially recognized until 1967, when one of his pieces was featured in Eskimo Sculpture, a highly acclaimed exhibition organized by the Winnipeg Art Gallery and presented at the Manitoba legislative building. Previously inexperienced in the graphic arts, Ilisituk produced two images that were included in the first release of an Arctic Québec print collection.

CAREER

Widely recognized as one of the most talented carvers to emerge from Salluit, Ilisituk had two solo exhibitions over the course of his career: Sculptures by Tivi Ilisituk — Sugluk, which was shown at the Beckett Art Gallery in Hamilton, Ontario in 1970, and Tivi Ilisituk: A Study in Cultural Realism, which was exhibited at Arctic Artistry in Hartsdale, New York in 1986. His sculptures are held in important national collections such as those of the Royal Ontario Museum, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada.