Lot 68
ANNIE TAIPANAK (1931-) QAMANI’TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
Untitled (People and Animals)

wool duffle, felt, and embroidery floss, 31.5 x 57.25 in (80 x 145.4 cm)
signed, "ᐊᓂ".

Provenance
A Montreal Collection.

The art of stitching was passed down to Taipanak from her mother, the renowned wall hanging artist Elizabeth Angrnaqquaq (1916–2003). This unusual diptych teems with images of people and animals interacting with each other, common subjects in Taipanak’s wall hangings. Figures face toward and away from each other, generating a sense of excited community buzz. Works such as this one celebrate the daily goings-on of community life before the days of social distancing! Land and sea animals without any reference to land or water mix freely with the humans; at top right a seal cosies up to a human figure on the same plane as a bird behind the figure. The two halves of this diptych are unified by the artist’s innate sense of colour and her meticulous thread work that covers her wall hangings from border to border. This stitching adds further layers of colour and dynamism to the composition. Her closed feather stitch undulates around embroidered animal and felt figures, adding to the sense of vibrancy already found in the colour variations. Perhaps the image harks back to a time of Taipanak’s childhood on the land when the world of humans and animals were as interwoven as they seem in this beautiful, zany wall hanging.

References

For two examples of hangings by the artist, including one that is similarly divided into “panels”, see expandinginuit.com (American private collection website).