Architecture, in all its forms, shapes daily life, social connection, and culture. Here, Nicole Luke looks at depictions of buildings across mediums that highlight community and process, social commentary, and feelings of nostalgia and safety.
Itee Pootoogook Kitchen Window (2010) Coloured pencil and pencil 55.8 x 76.2 cm REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION DORSET FINE ARTS COURTESY FEHELEY FINE ARTS © THE ARTIST
Kitchen Window (2010)
Placing a sink beneath a window is a common, architecturally strategic design, transforming the place where one does a mindless chore into a threshold between interior and landscape. The streaks of light blue with large spots of white shading suggests an overcast day. The clouds won’t stop the light from illuminating the interior, carefully aligning the shadow of the tea kettle. To me, Itee Pootoogook frames the horizon as a constantly shifting backdrop against which one can daydream and wonder. When will the warm light of sunnier days filter through the glazing, or, has the wind finally settled down? The window is the focus of the view; Pootoogook extends the space of the kitchen beyond its physical boundaries, brightening the room with the light from the land while shading the interior. I imagine thinking, Almost finished, just one more pan. Maybe I’ll let it soak.
Keeleemeeoomee Samualie Drawing for print the Winter Camp (1978–1979) coloured pencil and felt-tip pen COURTESY Collection of the West Baffin © THE ARTIST
Drawing for print Building the Winter Camp (1978–1979)
Keeleemeeoomee Samualie depicts a travelling Inuit family setting up camp for the winter, perhaps for a long- or short-term stay, building their shelter. In this drawing, I see that an iglu and qamutiik, a dog sled, embody the relationship between people, materials, climate, and the land using the scale of a human body. The act of building becomes integral to the experience of dwelling across the land. Samualie shows the joyous expressions of the family working together, constructing their home, one brick of snow at a time. This communal process provides a personal connection to place and space and provides an example on how architecture is not the finished product but the process itself. The qamutiik is a key tool for the iglu, as it holds all the materials needed to create the temporary architecture and is its own piece of architecture, too. The qamutiik rests while the iglu takes form.
Alberta Rose W./Ingniq Millennial dream house ig (2022) Carved avocado pit © THE ARTIST
Millennial dream house ig (2022)
Alberta Rose W./Ingniq’s Millennial dream house ig is a clever way to reflect on the housing crisis in the North. Made out of the woody pit of an avocado, the carving depicts a material similar to the one used for standard housing, wood stud framing. The Millennial dream house shows every texture was intentional, from the front door and protruding cold porch to the steep angled roof. The witty commentary of the piece is twofold. The avocado represents the critique of millennials frivolously spending their money on avocado toast, and the tiny house represents today’s challenge in finding adequate housing in an overwhelmed housing market. I hope to see some more pieces complement and continue the conversation.
Dawn Winters Untitled (Beautiful morning after the storm) (2023) Digital photograph © THE ARTIST
Untitled (Beautiful morning after the storm) (2023)
Light and shadow dust off the hamlet in Untitled (Beautiful morning after the storm), seemingly after a long night of wind and snow. I feel sleepy when looking at this photo, as if I also just woke up from the storm. The sun peeks over the horizon, showing hues of pinks and purples, mixing with the light in the blue sky. The newly carved snow drifts provide further contrast of sunshine and shade, blanketing the ground with texture. I can only imagine the sunrise seeping through the windows in the buildings, which would make me eager to start the day. The large clearing skies indicate a sunny day ahead. The photograph highlights how small the community building and houses are compared to the rolling mountains behind them. From this distance, the buildings blend into the landscape, complementing the trees, highlighted peaks, and shadow-filled valleys.
Installation view of Nuna (2022) by asinnajaq, in conversation with Tiffany Shaw, in the exhibition ᐊᖏᕐᕋᒧᑦ / Ruovttu Guvlui / Vers chez soi / Towards Home at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal, QC, 2022–23 COURTESY CCA PHOTO MATHIEU GAGNON © THE ARTIST
Nuna (2022)
A beautiful homage to the safety and home within the land, Nuna reminds me of being caressed by the environment, something that I find the built environment struggles to provide. Nuna is inspired by organic forms, void of sharp and square corners. A qulliq lights the inside and visually warms you as you sit inside its maple wooden dowel structure, which asinnajaq created in collaboration with Métis architect Tiffany Shaw. The structure allows those walking through the gallery space to sit, reflect, and recharge. Large imagery of the mossy green tundra, grey lichen, and shades of land drape over Nuna and engulf this experience, providing a semi-private moment within a public exhibition.
Nicole Luke is an emerging Indigenous designer who is passionate about culture and design. Born in the Northwest Territories with family residing in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, she is one of the first Inuk architectural graduates in Canada and the first to receive her bachelor and master’s degrees from the University of Manitoba. Luke believes that the built environment is a key factor to socio-economic agency and is dedicated to Indigenous initiatives as well as learning sustainable building practices.