Billy Gauthier: Sila at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) showcases the dynamic and masterful sculptures of Labrador-based artist and activist Billy Gauthier. This exhibition represents the largest display of Gauthier’s work to date and marks his first major survey held outside of Newfoundland and Labrador. Drawing primarily from private collections, Sila spans nearly three decades of Gauthier’s sculpting career from his first work sculptured, created as a Mother’s Day gift in 1996, to his most recent work, A Beautiful Struggle, completed in 2024. Gauthier’s sculptures are dynamic in both subject and material and it is through curator Darryn Doull’s thematic organization of his pieces that connect works across time that captures the essence of the sculptor’s body of work.
In Sila, Gauthier’s commitment to the land and culture becomes evident through his exploration of memory and stories, animal and figural representations, as well as Inuit cosmologies and iconography. As Gauthier describes in the exhibitions’ introductory text, “I hope that when they look at my work, they see the culture, the land, the environment, the whole ecosystem in the North, as being all one.” Committed to the land and the culture, Gauthier’s practice is also to be understood by audiences as deeply intertwined with an activist urgency. Gauthier explains, “my core belief is Inuit and our lands are synonymous: when our Nunangat is harmed, we become harmed and when our Nunangat heals, we begin to heal. I understand my work as a form of activism, carrying messages about the importance of caring for our land, animals and resources.”.[i] Sila serves a dual purpose: first, to further solidify Billy Gauthier as a highly accomplished artist and sculptor deserving of significant recognition; and second, to encourage audiences to look beyond the gallery walls and consider the current environmental and health issues facing the North as nationally significant.
A survey exhibition of a single artist’s body of work allows audience to experience an artists’ practice as a form of language or essence. Often organized chronologically, such exhibitions regularly encapsulate the early stages of a practice, an artists’ shifts and developments, as well as their current approaches. In the case of Sila, this exhibition is organized thematically, connecting works across Gauthier’s career. Across from the exhibitions didactic text, a thematic panel titled Ommatimmejuk- In the Heart introduces the audience to Gauthier’s activism. Surrounded by sculptures of figurative portraits and wildlife, a 2019 video clip shows Gauthier discussing his involvement in protesting the construction of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, which threatened to contaminate the Lake Melville area. Alongside Jeremiah Kohlmeister and Delilah Saunders, Gauthier undertook a 13-day hunger to raise awareness of the potential devastation to the water and surrounding area caused by the hydroelectric plant. Gauthier’s commitment to the land, emblematic in his activism, is central to his artistic practice. Gauthier’s intent to depict both human and animal life, as described in his interview, reflects what would be lost if the land is poisoned.
The exhibition continues with Ijimmejuk – In the Eye, featuring works that address subject of health and well-being among the Inuit. The corresponding didactic text outlines concerns such as food insecurity, rising rates of diabetes, and high rates of smoking and substance abuse that is further exacerbated by inadequate addition addiction treatment services and medical care accessible in these communities. The sculptures chosen for this theme present a powerful juxtaposition. Northern Frigidaire Diet, 2012, carved from antler, horn, serpentine, and slate, depicts what Gauthier describes as “an Inuk wrestling with all those demons that are in his fridge”. This figure lies beneath an open-doored fridge holding an open bottle and cigarette, symbolizing the weight of modern vices imported from the South. In contrast, the nearby depict scenes of Inuit customs and culture, such as Taken, (2023) which depicts the historical practice of an arranged marriage, and Duck Hunter (2021), which shows an individual using a hook to gather their recently shot Eider duck. Woven Stone Basket (2009) Gauthier depicts an Alaskan baleen basket woven from alabaster, antler, serpentine, and whisker. As described in the corresponding label, “these baskets were traditionally woven by the Inupiaq and St. Lawrence Islanders”. A female figure sits upon the stone basket, weaving her own basket. By juxtaposing imagery of the past with current realities, Gauthier makes visible the challenges facing Inuit communities as not an inevitable norm and demands that audiences to recognize and understand these contemporary issues in their full context.
Aggamejuk – In the Hand showcases Gauthier’s technical and aesthetic achievement. Opposite to a clip of Gauthier carving in his studio, a table displays the artist’s most frequently used material in its raw form. Material such as baleen, serpentine, anhydrite, labradorite, antler and ivory, demonstrating his ability to transform these materials into art. This section includes perhaps Gauthier’s most technically accomplished work, such as Swimming Loons (My Tribute to Kenojuak Ashevak) (2010). This work draws inspiration from Ashevak’s influential graphic drawings and prints of birds.[i] Gauthier transforms the loons’ fluid feathers into sculptural forms. The use of aesthetic beauty in sculpting becomes as described in the thematic text panel, “a tool to capture attention and generate pathways into his work for a wide-range of viewers”. Just as subject matter is a choice, the visual experiences of the sculptural works is an intentional act to capture attention and build an audience.
The final theme, Tungamejuk – In the Spirit, focuses on re-establishing the presence of shamanism in Labrador, granting them the role they once had among the Inuit prior to their banning. Shamans religious ceremonies, were healers, and mediated politics within their communities. For Gauthier, Shamans were figures who “best understood the way things are connected and where we fit in this world”. This connection between the land and human through these figures is made visual with Drumming with Northern Lights (2012), where a Shaman is pictured mid-transformation while they dance with the northern lights. A technical achievement, wings carved from baleen appear feather light and the carefully carved labradorite stones catches the gallery lighting to reflect their colours. Another figure, titled A Shaman’s Dance (2007), appears dancing with spirits as his face transforms into a bird. Sculpting the figure of the Shaman for Gauthier is an act of looking towards a past where the North thrived and to bring them into present where they can once again re-connect us to the world around us.
Reflecting upon my experience of Sila, I am struck by Billy Gauthier’s remarkable skill and dynamism, as well as the masterful way in which his body of work is presented. As curator Darryn Doull highlighted in the introductory didactic text, the artist’s voice is prioritized, centralized, and unmediated. Apart from thematic text panels which organize Gauthier’s work, each label includes a brief artistic statement or musings that offer insight into the work. Gauthier describes the inspiration behind the sculpture, the materials used, and the challenges he faced in creating them. Importantly, preceding each label where the artist voice is read, Gauthier’s name is listed. This deliberate emphasis on the artist’s voice is a radical act in the gallery space and the context of art history, where Indigenous artists’ identities were either purposefully lost or carelessly overlooked by the museum. In Sila, the artist’s is conveyed visually and physically through engraved text on artwork labels, as well as audibly through video clips. Furthermore, the sound of Gauthier’s dremel carving material fills the exhibition space, becoming the natural hum or white noise of Sila. The voice of the artist and the sound of his practice animate Sila, turning the exhibition into a celebration of Inuit culture and the land as embodied in Gauthier’s body of work.
I look forward to the upcoming monographic publication of Billy Gauthier’s work by KWAG. Such a publication allows for an exhibition to achieve an afterlife and enables Gauthier’s sculptures to be appreciated together long after the works return to their owners.
Julia De Kwant is a recent graduate from York University where she obtained a Master of Arts degree in Art History and Visual Culture. Julia is a cultural professional and writer residing in Toronto, Ontario
Citations
Gauthier, Billy. KAMA Shortlist Artist Talks. Interview by Taqralik Partridge, June 1, 2023
Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. “Billy Gauthier: Sila.” Accessed September 1, 2024
[i] “Billy Gauthier: Sila,” Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, accessed September 1, 2024, https://kwag.ca/exhibitions/billy-gauthier-sila.
[i] Billy Gauthier, KAMA Shortlist Artist Talks, interview by Taqralik Partridge, June 1, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGK5h6aZmB8.
