Additional Images

Provenance:

Private collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

A talented artist, Annago (also Arnaqu) Ashevak is known for his use of traditional subjects and materials in sometimes unconventional ways. The adopted son of artists Jonniebo and Kenojuak Ashevak, his work has sometimes drawn on the shamanistic and otherworldly imagery for which his parents are well known. Here Annago has sculpted a mysterious image of a shaman’s arm. Carved from the tapered tusk of a walrus and incised with black ink, the arm appears to emerge from mid-air.

Many historic Arctic depictions of otherworldly hands deliberately exclude the thumb, it has been said to diminish the power of the spirit to grab ahold of the living. [1] In the present work Annago has carved the hand with its digits fully intact.

(1) “The Yup'ik Dance Masks Tradition with Yup'ik dancer Chuna McIntyre and Curator Sean Mooney”, The Menil Collection, October 15, 2015. Click here to read more


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