Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Hamilton, Ontario

Literature:

Auger, Emily E., The Way of the Inuit Art: Aesthetics and History in and Beyond the Arctic. North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2005, p. 116

Note:

In the mid-1950s, a nickel mine opened in the Kangiqliniq region, at a time when the area was struggling due to poor hunting resources. The arrival of the mine and the related employment opportunities caused a dramatic shift in the community, as the residents became largely dependent on wage labour, unlike most arctic communities which were accustomed to hunting as their main occupation.

This transition can be seen in the subject matter of carvings from this region. Rather than focusing on wildlife as a hunter would, Tiktak would draw his inspiration from his experience working in the mine alongside the people of his community, who would become the primary subjects of his artistry. It was only after suffering an injury in the mines that he took up carving, to discover that he could make a living as an artist. In 1963, he fully committed himself to the art form, focusing on the human figure.

Driscoll notes in her book Rankin Inlet Art (p. 37) that Tiktak "plays with form in a manner that has elicited comparisons to the work of Henry Moore. Like Moore, Tiktak's forms are abstracted from life but are universal in their nature, content and expression."