Beyond Boundaries

Words and Portraits by Nick Westover; Photos by Tawna Brown

Nasogaluak was born in Tuktoyaktuk and attended Samuel Hearne Secondary School in Inuvik before training as an electronics technician and working in the oil sector on the Beaufort Sea. He had always aspired to be a full time artist and continued working on his art during this career, including taking time off work to create. “The last few years of my electronics career I knew I was in the process of change. I knew it was a matter of months maybe. It was middle of August, 21 years ago, that I made my change-over to become a full-time artist. Scary day.” He then spent 12 formative artistic years living in Yellowknife and working in a studio – which is still running – with other Tuk artists. From there he moved on to Toronto which has been his home for over 7 years now.

Asked whether he grew up with any older artistic mentors he says, “No, I grew up with my two brothers [Joe & Eli]. We pushed each other in a good artistic way. When I’m in front of those two I really have to work hard.” The three brothers egged each other on, drawing and carving with whatever materials they had available at the time. Nasogaluak does now have a younger artist that he mentors, 29 year old Kuzy Curley from Cape Dorset.

Not romantic about the origins of his work as an Inuit artist Nasogaluak says, “A lot of traditionalists want to know I use a hammer & chisel – no, I use whatever it takes to produce the best possible final piece. I’m an artist that just happened to have Inuvialuit descent.”

This current also carries over into themes in his artwork: his pieces speak in a traditional language but the conversation is often about modern issues. “A lot of the stories and legends have been covered by previous generations [of artists] already. That’s why I’m doing stuff like climate change. What are the issues that are happening today? These are what I’m trying to cover.”

Accomplished sculptor and painter Bill Nasogaluak was born in 1953, in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. As a child, he was constantly drawing, painting, carving, with his brothers Eli and Joe, as well as entering art contests.He became a fulltime artist in 1992 after working as an electronics technician for almost 19 years. He taught art at Arctic College in the mid-1990s, gaining international attention in a 1993 group show in San Francisco with his cousins Abraham Anghik Ruben and brother Joe Nasogaluak.

Nasogaluak enjoys collaborating and leading group art projects such as the creation of the NWT legislature’s ceremonial mace and ice and snow sculptures in competitions in cities from the north to Ottawa to Europe. In his own work his chosen medium is stone, although he still paints and draws. Some of his larger sculpture projects have been completed as public artworks such as inukshuks for the Canadian government in Guatemala and Mexico and the Kansai Canada Business Association in Osaka, Japan.

He has exhibited in San Salvador, El Salvador; Toronto, ON; Fribourg & Bern, Switzerland; Nuuk, Greenland; San Francisco, California and of course, Inuvik, NT. Nasogaluak’s work has been gifted to a Prime Minister and is held in a variety of private and public art collections around the world. As always Bill continues today to reinvent himself and his art, refusing to define himself by his past achievements or external expectations.

Nasogaluak’s desire to speak about more than traditional or picturesque imagery along with the exposure brought by living in larger cities has afforded him the opportunity to step outside the world of commercial art sales and toward the more exclusive world of serious collectors where contemporary ideas can be further explored. Themes in his upcoming work include darker imagery such as violence, suicide and how alcohol was brought to the north; events that continue to shadow many lives.

The difference between the more commercial art he was producing in Yellowknife and what he’s now working on in Toronto is, “it’s work that has a different perspective or different interpretation of some of the issues that are going on or have happened in the north.” Regarding such difficult subjects he says, “I want people to become aware through their own consciousness – this is my homeland and I want people to be aware of the issues. I don’t have a political agenda, I feel I am a story teller. I’m doing it purely as an artist.”

According to Nasogaluak the practice of making art is also a remedy for some of these social issues, “It’s very satisfying to produce a piece of art, it’s very soothing. I think art is a very good venue for a lot of different problems in society. I think everybody is born an artist, we just get humanized [become conditioned], we throw it aside. It’s great therapy, I find it very satisfying to finish a piece of art, a piece of your own work and to put your name on it – you’ve created something. Especially if it’s stone, it’s very tangible, it’s there, your physical work, unlike drawing or painting.”

Unfortunately, the ambition that takes one to the big city has it’s price, he says. “I miss the camaraderie, I miss my friendships, I miss my family since moving to Toronto. The times I spent carving in Yellowknife with my family, my carving friends, they were really really fun years. When I look back to it now that I work alone in Toronto, I miss that immensely.”

“I’ll go back to Tuk for a few days after this show [GNAF]. It’s good ‘cause I go back to my roots, I even pick up my accent, get it back. It’s my own culture and it grounds me. Some of the stuff I assume, living in Toronto, it’s a good gut check being there [in Tuk]. It’s good to get back home, good to be with my own people, good to hear my language. I want to go fishing, set a net, check a net. I usually try to come up in May and I haven’t done that in way too long now.”

Nasogaluak takes a long view of art in our society and it is understandably the view of an art advocate. “It’s our art and architecture that will define us one day. We need to have that [understanding] in our leaders. The north, Canada as a whole, we could all put more into the arts. When I see someone has sold a piece I’m excited because, as a whole, the art world is a little bit better. I don’t look at any artists as competition, never have: he’s my partner – we’re all trying to sell art to the world.”

His advice for aspiring artists stresses engagement with collectors and the viewing public: “For young, prospective artists, a place like the Great Northern Arts Festival is a great venue to be able to introduce your work to people, to gain confidence, to be able to talk about your work, to be able to understand how to promote it. I really made my start there too and I encourage any young artists wanting to take their work to the public: the festival circuit.”