EXHIBITION RECORD

An Inuit Perspective: Baker Lake Sculpture
Organized by Itsarnittakarvik: Inuit Heritage Centre, Baker Lake, Nunavut
in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

Friday, November 22, 2002 through Sunday, February 2, 2003

An Inuit Perspective is a welcome opportunity to engage in an exchange of ideas about contemporary art across borders. Through the simple act of placing works of art in new contexts - from their place of origin (Baker Lake) to the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario (in downtown Toronto), and back once again to Baker Lake - art shows its many changing faces. Indeed, from artist's hands to the museum storage vault and finally to enclosed display cases, the objects themselves change in their very essence in the different places they are seen. Lively interpretation is, after all, about the expression of ideas from various points of view. Offering our collection for interpretation is a central function of the AGO. Encouraging diverse points of view underlines the rich variety of the world of art itself. New interpretations allow our eyes to see a familiar landscape as if we are seeing it for the first time. To place our collection in front of the careful gaze of interpreters from within Inuit culture, with the eyes and sensibilities of the makers themselves, is for us a privilege.

That Itsarnittakarvik has been able to draw the works in An Inuit Perspective from a single collection, that of Sam and Esther Sarick, is truly remarkable. An Inuit Perspective, then, celebrates our individual and collective experiences of art, and the collectors' passion for telling a story through a series of art objects. We are pleased to connect the Art Gallery of Ontario to the North through the sharing of these outstanding works of art and through lending administrative support to Itsarnittakarvik in the preparation of this exhibition. It is important to us, I believe, to encourage meaningful community involvement in museum life.

Matthew Teitelbaum
Director
Art Gallery of Ontario