‘If I don’t draw them, only I can see them’
Lera Kotsyuba interviews 2024 Governor General Award winner Shuvinai Ashoona.
Shuvenai Ashoona, 2024. Photo: Kitra Cahana
Lera Kotsyuba: How do you see your art and practice within the long lineage of Inuit art?
Shuvinai Ashoona: I make my art because people before me in my family made art, and many people in my community also make art. I think that because there are so many artists in Kinngait who have made art for a long, long time, many people in the world know about this place. I want to share my drawings with everyone so that they will all know about the artists in Kinngait.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Arctic Evening, 2003. Lithograph, 57 x 76.5 cm. COURTESY OF DORSET FINE ARTS.
LK: Can you please speak a little about the inspiration and process that goes into bringing together the two elements of your imagery: the everyday aspects of life, and the fantastical worlds, in your art?
SA: My drawings are sometimes about what I see around me, in the studio, outside in the community and at home. I also like to be imaginative and draw what I see in my mind, sometimes monsters and strange things and places. I want to draw them because if I don’t draw them, only I can see them.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Inner Worlds, 2014. Lithograph, 76.3 x 57 cm. COURTESY OF DORSET FINE ARTS.
LK: How do you want to see your practice transform in the future?
SA: I like to draw on very big papers, I can draw more and show more in the drawing. I might make a very big one, that’s as big as a wall or something like that. That would be a fun thing to make and I think it would also be a fun thing for people to see.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Vancouver Rivers, 2022. Single-plate etching, Edition of 20, 77 x 112 cm. Photo: Byron Dauncey. COURTESY OF MARION SCOTT GALLERY.
LK: Can you please speak a little about the process that transforms your drawing into a print?
SA: We have many printmakers working in the studio. Some of them have worked there for a very long time, and some are new people. I like working with the printers. They know about making my drawings into prints and we talk about what it will look like and how the colours will look. I help sometimes, telling them what I think and how the print should look.
Shuvinai Ashoona, Octopuses, 2017. Lithograph, 56.2 x 38.2 cm. COURTESY OF DORSET FINE ARTS.
