EVA TALOOKI ALIKTILUK (1927-1994) ARVIAT (ESKIMO POINT)
Beaded Figure Wearing Mittens, c. 1980
stone, glass and plastic beads, felt, caribou skin, and cotton thread, 4 x 3.25 x 3.25 in (10.2 x 8.3 x 8.3 cm)
signed, "ᑕᓗᑭ".

ESTIMATE: $1,500 — $2,500

Provenance
Walker's Auctions, Ottawa, November 2012, Lot 94;
Acquired from the above Norman Zepp & Judith Varga, Saskatoon, SK.

Talooki is renowned for the application of often quite elaborate beadwork decoration to her carvings, which lends her works a delightful folk-art charm. Talooki’s occasional larger sculptures can be quite imposing [1], but we see here that the artist could make even small works quite striking in appearance. Her figures’ strands of beads are typically “shorthand” for women’s traditional ceremonial amautiit, but in Beaded Figure Wearing Mittens they spill across the “floor” as a spectacular robe or evening gown might. The caribou skin mittens are a highly unusual addition that makes this little gem even more exceptional. Talooki’s woman is truly dressed to the nines.

1. See First Arts 5 Dec. 2022, Lot 42; and the current auction, Lot 7.

References: This work reminds us of a stone and caribou skin carving by the Arviat elder Margaret Uyauperq, illustrated in Susan Gustavison, Northern Rock: Contemporary Inuit Stone Sculpture, (Kleinburg: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1999), cat. 29, p. 119.