The surreal meets the everyday in Inuk artist Shuvinai Ashoona’s mesmerising pencil drawings
that depict the meshing of mythology and modernity in her hometown of Kinngait, Canada.
Fantastical, many-tentacled creatures exist in tandem with children wrapped in puffer jackets
and platypus-headed humans. Frozen landscapes and dreamlike scenes drawn meticulously in
coloured pencil draw the viewer into Ashoona’s peculiar and playful world. Nestled within quiet
central London mews, stepping into ‘The Perimeter’ gallery is like stepping into another realm.
Ashoona’s large-scale, panoramic compositions appear to blend myriad perspectives and
vantage points, and the intimacy of the independent gallery space immerses viewers within
Ashoona’s simultaneously unsettling and intriguing snowy scenes.
Alongside Ashoona’s artwork, visitors can watch the BAFTA award-winning 1963 documentary
‘Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak’, portraying Kinngait’s rich artistic history and the laborious, dedicated
process by which the late Inuk artist Kenojuak Ashevak created and distributed her prints.
Indeed, Ashoona’s artwork speaks to her culture’s past and how history is interwoven into her
modern-day reality, suffusing an ever-evolving contemporary world with stories, traditions, and
myths passed down to her through generations.
‘When I Draw’ is open to visit in London until 26 April, offering a brief escape from visitors’
everyday reality into Ashoona’s dreamworld in the faraway Canadian arctic.
