Additional Images

Provenance:

Private Collection, Toronto, ON

Note:

Carved by Qiliqtarjuaq (Broughton Island) artist Josephie Kokseak while in residence at the the Mountain Sanatorium (now Chedoke Campus) in Hamilton, Ontario, this simple but elegantly carved early sculpture of a bird is a typical composition made at the Sanatorium circa 1958.

The Mountain Sanatorium in Hamilton was a facility designated as a tuberculosis treatment center for the Eastern Arctic which hosted over 1,200 Inuit between 1953 and 1963.

As a form of occupational therapy, and at the request of hospital residents, male patients would carve, while women would sew, embroider, and make dolls in their beds. [1] Many carvings made during stays at the sanatorium are unsigned and remain unidentified.

Artworks made by talented artists while patients at the Mountain Sanatorium were the subject of a 2017 exhibition at the Art Gallery of Hamilton titled “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art."

(1) Sutherland, Caitlin, “Carving Home: The Chedoke Collection of Inuit Art”, Inuit Art Quarterly. December 5, 2017.

Related works:

Art Gallery of Hamilton, Collection No. 2016.13.70, Click here to read more