Maybe it’s the stark contrasts of the icy north. Maybe it’s the long cultural continuity with old ways of seeing the world. Maybe it’s just the long winter nights. Whatever the reason, a wave of creation is coming out of studios in Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia.
ISAKSEN DESIGN
Greenlandic designer Niki Isaksen is the genius behind the Isaksen fashion brand. Born in Paamiut, raised in Nuuk, and educated at the London College of Fashion, she brings a global sensibility and spiritual inspiration to her sustainable, handmade designs. Stark reds, whites, and blacks combine in patterns pleasing to the eye: an abstract kayak, an ice-floe geometry, a polar bear line drawing. Some are simple, unadorned, and elegant.
INUK 360
Inuk is a designer, educator, master caribou-hair tufter, and sustainable-fur advocate in Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. Her wearable artwork can include driftwood her mother gathered from the shores of the Mackenzie River or antlers from animals her brother hunts to feed his family.
HINAANI
An artists’ collective from the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, “Hinaani” means “the ice floe’s edge,” and creators here love being ahead of the pack. Lead designer Nooks Lindell makes clothing, handicrafts, and graphic art with a focus on reclaimed materials and finding intersections between traditional culture and modern life.
THIRD GENERATION ART
Golga Oscar, a fluent Yup’ik speaker, uses skills in photography and sewing as a way to keep his language and culture alive for future generations. All the elements used are 100 percent natural, including “revitalized” ancestral artwork that mix contemporary materials with traditional pieces. He uses authentic Yup’ik skills to create something never seen before.
By Porthole Cruise and Travel
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