NEWS: Nunavut artists stretch their skills for international exhibition

NEWS: NunavutFebruary 13, 2014 - 1:19 pm DAVID MURPHY

It turns out that carving and architecture go hand in hand.

Architects sculpt models before their buildings are constructed. And sculptors sometimes make art afterwards, inspired by those very structures.

Which is exactly what a group of Pangnirtung artists did in January, carving famous buildings in Nunavut, to scale, as part of Canadas entry in an upcoming international architecture exhibit in Venice, Italy.

Architects and sculptors share a lot in fact.

Generally speaking the idea is that architects and carving artists are often working in the same medium. They both make models, said Mason White of Lateral Office, the company curating the Arctic Adaptations project for Venice.

Architects make models. Carving artists make models. They make scaled figures of things and architects make scaled figures of buildings, White said.

Arctic Adaptations was developed as a celebration of Nunavuts 15th anniversary as a territory. Lateral Office is organizing the Arctic Adaptations project for the Venice Architectural Biennale, which takes place in June 2014.

The architectural carvings masterful models of schools, recreation centres, churches, hotels and family homes rendered in varying shades of mottled green soapstone will be individually displayed on a shelf inside a wall.

To make their sculptures, artists were given blueprints of famous buildings in Nunavut.

More:
NEWS: Nunavut artists stretch their skills for international exhibition