Stoneworks reveal humanity’s movement over water and ice, through spirit to connection

Inuit artist Abraham Anghik Ruben has made a breathtaking body of work over his lifetime, carving and smoothing stone unearthed from continents across the world.

The land tells a story of its people, and in looking into the history of his community, Ruben found landmarks that showed that a period of warming happened centuries ago, and like today, brought people together. The reason was twofold. The Inuit and the Vikings were able to go further afield with the technology they had at hand. And like now, that brought concerns over territory and food.

But the curious Narwhals, an artic species of whale remarkable for its single long tusk, may have taken on a spiritual importance in their meeting.

“They must have thought, “Jackpot,” Europe has the legend of the unicorn, we’ve got the goods,” says Ruben.

In particular, the Inuit were skilled hunters, and provided a narwhal tusk as a gift to the Danish King, who used the tusk to build his throne. In an arrangement to build a treaty between the two peoples, the king sent three shiploads of gifts in return.

“The words that you’ll see up in the exhibition is my interpretation of what of what may have happened during contact between two very different arctic peoples,” says
Ruben. But they also had much in common, he adds, and some of that was a shamanistic tradition led by women.

“Look with open eyes,” says Ruben.

Inuit art curator Heather Campbell said Ruben’s work is “truly incredible. Like it truly gave me goosebumps the first time that I walked into the space after a lot of the pieces were installed.”

WAG Artistic director Stephen Borys, besides being proud of the WAGs initiative to recognise Ruben’s talent by holding his first solo exhibition in 2001, also described a visceral response to the collection now on display.

“This is an opportunity to tell an untold story,” said Ruben, “the exhibition is my way of thanking my parents who gave me the first teachings and elders who were involved in my development over the years. The climate change that we’re experiencing today happened many times in the past.”