5 Works Show How Night Holds Us

Night comes alive in these five works—a time for gathering, reflection, and transformation. Five circumpolar Indigenous artists show us nights filled with memory and connection: warmth spills from windows and flames, familiar street corners hold stories, quiet unfolds in spaces both intimate and vast and auroras dance across winter skies. Each of these artists share how night becomes a beautiful gift—found in spectacular skies as in everyday shared moments—an invitation to pause, gather and create. In these grounded yet spirited moments of reflection and renewal, night holds us.

Dayle Kubluitok Four Corners at Night (2019) Digital illustration © THE ARTIST

Four Corners at Night (2019)
Four Corners at Night (2019) is a special piece for me because it is a place I have been many times. If you have been to Iqaluit, NU, you have probably been there too, perhaps sitting in lunch-hour traffic or on your way into town from the airport. Kubluitok renders the usually busy daytime intersection in hues familiar to any Northern resident: deep navy and the yellowed light of streetlamps among the familiar green and purple tones of the aqsarniit. It feels like a tribute made particularly for Iqalummiut; we all see it in our own distinct memories. Some folks think of chilly nights walking to the Legion to dance, some may recall the geodesic Kamotiq Inn that once occupied that southwest corner for decades. Unlike so much art featuring the circumpolar night sky, this drawing holds a memory of place, tethering you to the spot from which you gaze at the innumerable lights that brighten our long nights.

NAPATSI FOLGER
Tauttunnguaqti

Barry Pottle Qulliq (2014) Digital photograph © THE ARTIST

Qulliq (2014)
Barry Pottle’s photograph Qulliq depicts one of the ways Inuit have weathered long, cold, dark unnuit (evenings). Against an empty background, the bright flames capture and hold our attention. Their light reveals the cotton wick, shiny with oil, partitioned for individual flames. The rough wall of the qulliq contrasts with the pool of oil, which would be indistinguishable if not for the reflection it casts. This photo evokes the joy found when nights are lit up: spirited conversations among friends and family, faces further animated by shifting light, hands warmed by the flames and a hot mug of tea. Thanks to qullit, unnuit have become visible and warm.

TIFFANY RADDI
Assistant Editor

Janet Nungnik Northern Lights/Inside the Iglu at Night (2002) Embroidery floss, and beadwork on wool duffel 152.4 x 111.8 cm COURTESY ROBERT KARDOSH GALLERY AND © THE ARTIST

Northern Lights/Inside the Iglu at Night (2002)
Under a half-moon glow, Northern Lights/Inside the Iglu at Night (2002) captures the rhythm of camp life—a time of warmth and connection. Delicate stitchwork reveals a world where interior and exterior spaces coalesce: a celestial backdrop of swirling northern lights dance above a family nestled in their snow house. Above them, six crimson forms hold a quiet magic, evoking tents or throats lifted in song. A woman in a pink parka fishes with her line, while yellow mittens hang in pairs, evoking hearts. Nearby, kamiks and a striped Hudson’s Bay blanket complete the scene—all beneath a starry sky that settles like a warm blanket over the land.

CHARISSA VON HARRINGA
Arctic Arts Summit Platform Managing Editor

Jessica Malegana Ulu (2021) watercolour, ink and pencil crayon © THE ARTIST

Ulu (2021)

Inuvialuit artist Jessica Malegana beautifully captures the serenity of a clear night on the land in her watercolour painting Ulu (2021). By framing the scene within the silhouette of this curved knife—treasured belonging and essential tool for life on the land— Malegana creates a window into a world beyond the paper, where unseen travellers have stopped to set up camp for the night. The tranquil scene depicts a tent gently illuminated by the glow of a campfire, surrounded by evergreen trees, while a boat rests along the still shoreline. Through her watercolour technique, Malegana skillfully blends shades of blues and yellows, balancing the cool moonlight tones with the warmth of fire, creating a moment of comfort in the darkness.

MICHELLE SONES
Fact Checker

Untitled (2022)
This photograph by Inuuteq Storch makes me smile. It reminds me of delightfully haphazard Saturday nights spent in a friend’s basement apartment. While Storch’s Keepers of the Ocean series captures moments from daily life in his hometown of Sisimiut, Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), the image feels as familiar as any scene here in Toronto, ON. The basement becomes a universal space where creativity flourishes in the dark hours, where time feels like an illusion. This work finds the extraordinary in the ordinary—the pink teapot, the open notebook on the wooden table—and has the power to stimulate nostalgia and memories in others, just as it does for me.

EMILY LAWRENCE
Associate Editor