Description
An incredible Mask by Billy Merkosak from Pond Inlet.
Billy Merkosak is a recognized artist from Mittimitalik (Pond Inlet), a small Inuit community located north of Baffin Island in Nunavut, between Kangiqlugaapik (Clyde River) and Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay). He started drawing when he was four years old. Since then, he has explored different artistic media and practices, sculpting whale bones, ivory or driftwood, and using watercolors. Billy Merkosak is one of the few artists in Nunavut who carves masks, along with Tim Pitseolak, Taqqialuk Nuna and Sam Toonoo from Kinngait (Cape Dorset)
Blly Merkosak Bio
Billy Merkosak (1966)
Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik)
Billy Merkosak is a recognized artist from Mittimitalik (Pond Inlet), a small Inuit community located north of Baffin Island in Nunavut, between Kangiqlugaapik (Clyde River) and Ikpiarjuk (Arctic Bay). He started drawing when he was four years old. Since then, he has explored different artistic media and practices, sculpting whale bones, ivory or driftwood, and using watercolors. Billy Merkosak is one of the few artists in Nunavut who carves masks, along with Tim Pitseolak, Taqqialuk Nuna and Sam Toonoo from Kinngait (Cape Dorset). Sculpting or drawing masks helps maintain a close connection between the past and the present, through the myths and ancient stories of Inuit elders. Indeed, masks were once important during shamanic practices to allow the shaman to communicate with spirits or deceased people. Miniature masks were also used as amulets to protect shamans, children and adults from evil spirits. In the early 1960s, archaeologists discovered miniature ivory masks from the Dorset Culture near Iglulik (south of Mittimatalik). Through this mask, Billy Merkosak celebrates his ancestors and connections to the past. His works of art seem to be a way of transmitting the knowledge of ancestors to young Inuit.
