School of Fish Sculpture by Kakkee Negeoseak
Channel: Royal Botanical Gardens
Date: 2019-08-09

The Dan Lawrie International Sculpture Collection was founded by philanthropist Dan Lawrie at the Royal Botanical Gardens in 2014. Through Mr. Lawrie’s generous support, there are more than a dozen sculptural works in RBG’s Hendrie Gardens. https://www.rbg.ca/tisc

The newest large-scale permanent work, School of Fish by Inuit sculptor Kakkee Negeoseak, will be installed in the Reflecting Pool in August 2019.

The focus of this project was to find a work that had a symbolic connection to the water, as well as an aesthetic match to the dignity of the space at the centre of the RBG rose garden. With a desire to acknowledge 2019 as the UNECSO Year of Indigenous Languages, this quickly led to a connection with Inuit stone carving.

The majority of Inuit stone carving is done in serpentinite stone at a small, hand-held scale with much of the subject matter featuring animals such as bears, birds, fish, owls, narwhal and other species native to their communities. Many of the carvers do not speak English, and are represented by trusted galleries or institutions such as Dorset Fine Arts in Toronto (an Inuit Art specialist since 1978) and co-ops like the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative in Cape Dorset, Nunavut known for its unique focus on the arts and artists of the community.

Royal Botanical Gardens is made up of four distinct formal gardens contained within 1,100 hectares of nature reserve, across the municipalities of Hamilton and Burlington Ontario. See all our garden areas and start planning your visit at https://www.rbg.ca/gardensandtrails

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