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JUTAI TOONOO (1959 - ) |
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Jutai Toonoo lives and works in the Inuit settlement of Cape Dorset, and has also lived in Iqaluit. He is the son of Toonoo and Sheojuke, and the brother of artists Samonie Toonoo and Oviloo Tunnillie. Jutai is an accomplished sculptor and jewellery maker who began carving at the tender age of seven, recalling a kind of hero-worship for his father. For Jutai, making art is an essential act - an attempt at balance in a world off-kilter too much of the time. "They're my frustrations," he says of his sculptures. Jutai is a mystical soul whose work often depicts human figures in the midst of transformation with spirits, animals, and other humans. Issues of power and protection suffuse his work. He speaks eloquently about the power of the spirit world, which he feels is more closely linked to our temporal world than we might imagine. Jutai asserts that the spirits are always with us, like veins under the surface of skin, imparting their power and protection to human beings in times of need. Jutai belongs to the middle generation of Inuit artists who hover somewhere
between the old and new worlds of the Arctic, negotiating an identity
that is at once introspective and worldly. Jutai appreciates the role
that carving plays in helping the Inuit to maintain their cultural identity,
through the blending of traditional and modern themes. Jutai often incorporates
text into his compositions, claiming that he does not plan for the words
- they simply emerge during the creative process. He is a commanding
ambassador of contemporary Inuit art, creating works that rarely conform
to traditional assumptions about the style and substance of Inuit sculpture.
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