Literature:

Masako Iwasaki, Inuito No Kabekake (Inuit Wall-Hangings), Tokyo, 1999, pg. 26

Exhibited:

This work was on display at the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, Japan since 2000.

Note:

“Mysterious creatures with human heads and animal tails; creatures that are part-fish and part-human; a variety of mammals with human traits: these are incarnations of the everyday animals and tools of a hunting people like the Inuit.
These ideas are shown in this wall hanging, as imagined by the artist Tuu’luq. Somewhat scary and uncomfortable to look at, the images are based on the traditional faith of the northern hunting cultures, Shamanism, in which all living creatures have a soul.
Perhaps uncomfortable images like these were born from the reality of the harsh existence in the north. Hunters chasing over the icefield to catch game on the horizon, concerned about their own safety, uneasy with the possibility that there will be no catch – cruel winter silently advancing, difficulty distinguishing between the grey sky and the barren horizon. The hunter identifies with the prey.
Towards the bottom of the wall hanging, there’s a bright red geometric shape. This is an “ulu”, an everyday knife used by Inuit women. The ulu shows up in various places on the incarnated creatures of this wall hanging: a bird’s wings; an animal tail; a fish’s fins. Between the incarnated creatures, little fish and fat baby seals are locked in.
The design shows the rich imagination and humour of the Inuit, and is representative of the Shaminism-influenced patterns that they like to draw.”