GUIDED OBSERVATIONS
  1. In what ways do you celebrate the women in your life?

  2. What have you learned from the women in your community? Do you embrace any phenomena that exist ‘in-between’ assumed boundaries or dualities in your own life?

  3. Do you embrace any phenomena that exist ‘in-between’ assumed boundaries or dualities in your own life?

The Textile Museum of Canada, curated by Candice Hopkins, presents ᑕᑯᒃᓴᐅᔪᒻᒪᕆᒃ Double Vision: Jessie Oonark, Janet Kigusiuq and Victoria Mamnguqsualuk. Exhibiting from March 9, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

Double Vision will debut at the Museum as a key component of the 2022 Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA), which runs from March 26 to June 5, 2022. The Museum is partnering with TBA in the creation of a learning tool to be included in the TBA Mobile Arts Curriculum (MAC)—a set of tools and activities for educators and caregivers to use when engaging learners of various age groups.

As part of the exhibition and the Museum’s public programming, The Textile Museum of Canada will invite six presenters to give Art Chats—brief, informal talks intended to bring a range of voices to exhibition themes and contemporary issues. A key goal in the Museum’s presentation of Double Vision is to foreground Inuit knowledge and encourage cultural exchange through artistic and educational activities. As such, the Museum is looking to engage Inuk youth as Art Chat presenters, giving them the opportunity to share their responses to the exhibition.

Highlights from this series of Art Chats presented in response to Double Vision will be featured in this learning tool as part of the MAC and made accessible on both the Museum’s and the TBA’s websites.

Nivingajuliat, or wall hangings, were conceived by the seamstresses of the community. These brightly stitched textiles feature graphic appliquéd images, often enhanced with embroidery, centering on the dynamics and interrelationships between people and animals. Through these artworks, Double Vision looks at the matriarchal practice of Oonark and two of her daughters, and how women artists in Qamani`tuaq mentored one another in producing unique aesthetic and conceptual lineages.

Image of works by Janet Kigusiuq
Suggested Age/Grade

K-12, Families, Intergenerational

Curriculum Links

CURRICULUM LINKS: The Arts, English, Social Studies, History, Geography, Science, First Nations, Métis and Inuit Studies

Keywords

nivingajuliat, Qamani’tuaq, textile, appliqué, image, embroidery, celebration, women, duality, interrelationships, matriarchal practices, voice, vision

Downloadable Content:
FURTHER READING

    Recommended for ages 7-9:
  1. Qitsualik-Tinsley, Rachel, and QitsualikTinsley, Sean, How Things Came to Be : Inuit Stories of Creation. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2015.

    Recommended for high school ages:
  2. Christopher, Neil, McDermott, Noel, and Flaherty, Louise, Unikkaaqtuat : An Introduction to Inuit Myths and Legends. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2011.
  3. Harper, Ken. In Those Days: Inuit Lives. Iqaluit: Inhabit Media, 2013.
About the Contributors

Double Vision profiles three ground-breaking artists from Nunavut:

Jessie Oonark (1906–1985) and her daughters, Janet Kigusiuq (19262005) and Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (1930–2016)—and shines a light on a highly distinctive art form called nivingajuliaat that developed out of government-sponsored craft programs in the Arctic, beginning with the sewing program in Qamani`tuaq (Baker Lake) established in the 1960s.

Image Credit: ᔮᓂᑦ�ᑭᒍᓯᐅᖅ Janet Kigusiuq, Composition, Qamani’tuaq (Baker Lake), 1996 – 2000; tissue, acrylic polymer, paper collage. Courtesy of Feheley Fine Arts. Public Trustee for Nunavut, Estate of Janet Kigusiuq Uqayuittuq.