On a cold gray Montreal afternoon, there seem to be quite a few of those now, I was lucky enough to be dispatched by a certain editor to cover the latest show at the McCord Museum. Lost Visions, Forgotten Dreams – Life and Art of an Ancient Arctic People is a traveling exhibition, produced by the Canadian Museum of Civilization. The exhibit covers some 5000 years of human cultural development in the Arctic region, beginning with a people archaeologists have identified as the Palaeo-Eskimos and continuing through the era of Dorset (Tunit as they are called by the Inuit) culture, which is thought to have gradually disappeared between A.D. 1200 and 1500. The exhibit is divided into two main sections: Magic Animals, Magic Weapons, which features carvings of bears and falcons, decorated harpoon heads, and representations of spirit guides; and The Realm of the Shaman, in which masks, wands, fertility figures and other objects thought to be tools of the Shaman are displayed.
The work and thought that went into this exhibit is evident from the moment you enter. The gallery space has been transformed into a world of sensory delights. No, I wasn’t drinking at the time. Upon entering the gallery one is greeted by a large-scale reproduction of a soapstone cliff laden with carvings of human-like faces. So convincing is the display that, like an idiot, I had to touch it to make sure it wasn’t real. As I wandered through the gallery, I found myself slipping into a sort of trance-like state. Dramatic, soft lighting helped to create an intimate atmosphere. Hidden speakers, cached strategically throughout the two rooms that house the show, provide a meditative, sometimes haunting soundtrack of seal cries, drumming, and instrumental music. The overall mood created by the use of sound and light lend the exhibit a tone of reverence well suited for the precious artifacts on display, which include a variety of ancient tools, weapons, masks, drums, petroglyphs, arrowheads, and carvings.
The carvings are truly the stars of this show. The first one you encounter is the Tyara maskette, featured on this issue’s cover, a small ivory mask that was excavated from a 2,000 year old village at the Tyara site, on the south shore of Hudson Strait. Tiny, intricate Dorset sculptures are strikingly displayed in glass cases, some with magnifying glasses lined up on individual pieces to reveal detailed work that tired eyes would have trouble making out. Some of the diminutive carvings are rewarded with cases of their own, making them appear that much more precious. Another area features excavated carved bone disks, usually with eight or sixteen divisions carved into them. These disks are thought to have been celestial or cosmological symbols and provided the inspiration for the layout of the whole exhibit.
On a much larger scale, the exhibit features three-dimensional recreations of archaeological dig sites that blend into imposing, blown-up to wall size, photos of the dramatic northern landscapes in which the excavation work was done. The displays help one to visualize the connection between objects in a museum and their point of origin.
The exhibit also makes good use of photographs, paintings, model reconstructions and Video installations to help give a more rounded impression of the ways and cultural achievements of ancestral Arctic communities.
“The Tunit made our country habitable. They built the lines of boulder cairns which guide caribou to the river-crossings where they can be ambushed by hunters, and they furnished the rivers with fish-weirs.” -Netsilik Inuit, 1923
All in all, the exhibit does a fine job of not simply putting artifacts out there for people to gawk at and think ‘wow, that’s really old’, but of connecting these ancient treasures to the people who made them, the culture that surrounded them, and the environment in which it all took place.
Lost Visions, Forgotten Dreams – Life and Art of an Ancient Arctic People continues until May 6, 2001. The Museum also informs that they’ll be presenting a series of community activities that include Inuit syllabic writing workshops, and throat singing demonstrations.
