Mighty Machines

Tim Pitsiulak, Canadrill

Tim Pitsiulak, Canadrill, 2015. Black porous-point pen, coloured pencil, graphite on paper. Overall: 124.5 x 274.3 cm. Purchased with the assistance of the Joan Chalmers Art Purchase Fund, 2016. © Estate of Tim Pitsiulak. Reproduced with the Permission Dorset Fine Arts. 2016/4.

Tim Pitsiulak (1967−2016) was born in Kimmirut, Nunavut. He learned how to draw, sculpt and create jewellery at the Kinngait Studios in Cape Dorset. Like his aunt, prominent Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitsiulak cared for his family and community and provided for them through hunting. Hunting imagery appears frequently in his large-scale, coloured-pencil drawings. Pitsiulak photographed his world extensively, sometimes experimenting with a GoPro camera during his trips, later translating his photographs into drawings in the studio.

Along with hunting, Pitsiulak was also enthusiastic about presenting images of modern life in Nunavut, such as the boats, planes and heavy equipment he saw in his community. In Canadrill, Pitsiulak captures the details of machinery used to drive holes into the ground to secure the structural pilings of large buildings.