This is a past event
All Aboard the Nascopie: Image-making and Coastal Memory in the Eastern Canadian Arctic
Dr Isabelle Gapp (Aberdeen)
Between 1933 and 1941 the icebreaker the R.M.S. Nascopie, a British-made vessel commissioned by the Hudson Bay Company to be used as a supply ship, counted tourists among its passengers, alongside HBC personnel, missionaries, medical practitioners, scientists, and government officials. Life aboard the ship, wildlife, sea ice, inclement weather, and Inuit were all documented in the reports, written diaries, and visual records that emanated from the Nascopie as it operated under the many guises of icebreaker, supply vessel, cruise ship, and sovereign symbol. Looking across photography, painting, and printmaking during the 1930s through to the present day, I consider the Nascopie as an anchor between the visual arts and the coastal landscape. Confronting the anonymity of Inuit and their traditional lands throughout the settler images of Lorene Squire and F.H. Varley, I simultaneously explore how the Nascopie lingers in Inuit visual and cultural memory, notably in the work of Shuvinai Ashoona. By untangling the inter-media and multi-temporal role of the Nascopie across past and present image cultures, I explore the intertwined narratives of coastal history, visual culture, and colonial modernity in the eastern Canadian Arctic.
This is a hybrid event. If you would like to join us online, please email Dr Karl Kinsella for the link: karl.kinsella@abdn.ac.uk
- Speaker
- Dr Isabelle Gapp
- Venue
- CB009, 50/52 College Bounds