Scrimshander investigates a new horizon
Hailing from the land down under, Gary Tonkin has been enjoying a residency at the Kendall Institute for the past month, researching American East Coast whalers that visited Australia. It is an inquiry to which he's been committed since his first visit to the Kendall Whaling Museum in Sharon, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, 15 years ago.
This interest of Mr. Tonkin's derives quite logically from his art, for international experts regard Gary Tonkin as perhaps the world's premier contemporary practitioner of scrimshaw. Originally from Portland, Victoria, at the extreme southeast of Australia, Mr. Tonkin relocated to Albany, West Australia, at the extreme southwest, because of the abundance of offshore whales, the area's whaling history, and its unique topography.
The site of the nation's last whaling operation, the Albany station brought in about 500 whales a year until its closing in 1978. Since then, Mr. Tonkin is one of several residents who persuaded the local government and the Abany community to preserve the retired station and convert it to a whaling museum.
Asked how he became interested in scrimshaw, Mr. Tonkin responds with a precise answer. "I made my first piece on August 8, 1975. Art was my best subject at school and I was the top student in my year. This, combined with my diving, interest in whaling history, my love of maritime history, and the way I was brought up, everything came together and it was almost like it was planned."
"I loved fine engravers," said the artist, "like Cook and Turner and all those other early engravers. Their work just had a richness about it that influenced me greatly. For me it's a never-ending learning curve; the further you go the more you learn."
Perhaps Mr. Tonkin's grandest undertaking in scrimshaw is the recording of the voyage of the Kathleen, which was sunk by a whale. On a 13-plus-foot sperm whale jawbone, with 22 teeth still in place, he has incised the story of the tragic saga on the bone and the teeth.
During his current visit, Mr. Tonkin attended last month's opening of the exhibition at the New Bedford Art Museum, "The Etchings of R. Swain Gifford," curated by Judy Lund, who has been acquainted with Mr. Tonkin for several years. The experience opened the artist's eyes to new possibilities, due also to the exhibit, "Contemporary Etchings," in NBAM's Community Gallery. A subsequent chat with that show's curator, Marc St. Pierre, got Mr. Tonkin's creative wheels turning faster.
He has said that scrimshaw is a dying art form, though careful planning and serendipitous opportunities have allowed Mr. Tonkin to stockpile a supply of whale ivory for future work. "By law, I'm not allowed to sell or export my work outside of Australia, because of the ivory medium," said Mr. Tonkin. "Because of some similarities I saw between scrimshaw and etching, I think I may have found a medium that will allow me to expand both my art and my audience. I don't intend to stop doing my scrimshaw, but to investigate a new horizon."
It's exciting to hear an artist wax enthusiastic about a new artistic direction, and it became contagious when Mr. Tonkin showed me some examples of his talent for drawing on paper, an activity he's beginning to explore. After working on whale teeth and bone for almost 30 years, the leap to etching on a copper plate shouldn't offer many obstacles. Granted, there are additional lessons and techniques to learn, in fact a whole tradition of them, but Mr. Tonkin seems an eager and capable student.
What now seems most exciting is to witness how the legacy of one New Bedford artist, R. Swain Gifford, has planted a creative seed of possibility in another artist, who works in another medium on the other side of the globe. Everything happens for a reason.
David B. Boyce writes on the arts for The Standard-Times and lives in New Bedford. Send him mail c/o The Standard-Times, 25 Elm St., New Bedford MA 02740.
This story appeared on Page C3 of The Standard-Times on July 13, 2003.
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