A Canadian Curator in London

Georgiana Uhlyrarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, shares highlights from her recent travel to the U.K. Through her own photos and her own words, Georgiana takes you along on a remarkable journey.

I travelled to London for the opening of Nuliaminik Neqilik: The Flesh of Wives, the first solo exhibition by Kalaaleq (Greenlandic Inuk) artist Laakkuluk Williamson. The exhibition is curated by Taqralik Partridge, my former colleague at the AGO, at Mimosa House and is on until June 27.

Included in the presentation is a large vinyl of an image from Silaup Putunga (2018), an installation we acquired from the Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak exhibition. The AGO is the first art museum to acquire a work by Williamson, a Sobey Award-winning artist.

Image (left to right): Georgiana Uhlyarik, Laakkuluk Williamson and Taqralik Partridge in front of Silaup Putunga(2018).
Image from Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Jamie Griffiths. Silaup Putunga, 2018. Dual screen projection onto custom translucent screen, four channel sound (colour video, sound, 35 minutes), Running Time: 26 Minutes, 25 Seconds. Art Gallery of Ontario. Purchase, with funds from the Joan Chalmers Inuit Art Fund, 2019. ©️ Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and Jamie Griffiths. 2019/2324

The day after the opening, Laakkuluk Williamson performed her work Nuliaminik Neqilik: The Flesh of Wives in the Great Hall of the British Museum. Accompanied by the London-based musical group New Tribe Collective, Williamson told an ancient Greenlandic tale in Greenlandic and English and performed uaajeerneq, a Greenlandic mask dance.

The performance was a communal experience. Williamson offered a long ribbon for everyone gathered to hold onto, and we all chanted as we walked to the North American Indigenous Gallery in the British Museum, filling the space.

Image: Laakkulauk Willamson performs in the Great Hall of the British Museum

While in London, I also saw Cecily Brown: Picture Making at the Serpentine Gallery in the middle of Kensington Gardens. It was a great place to see the artist’s new painting and drawings inspired by Beatrix Potter—who was an inspiration for Joyce Wieland. The exhibition is on until September 6.

Image: Drawings on view in the Cecily Brown: Picture Making exhibition at Serpentine Gallery

I went to Murray Edwards College, which is at Cambridge University, to give a talk about Joyce Wieland. The college has a collection that’s entirely comprised of women artists, and they do great exhibitions based on that collection. It was a very meaningful place for me to talk about Wieland.

I took a photo of the entrance to the college, which features these beautiful gardens that Wieland would have loved. You can also see a dome in the background, which is this very interesting brutalist architecture, and it’s actually above the dining hall where the residents of the college have their meals.

Image: Entrance to Murray Edwards College, Cambridge