Additional Images

Provenance:

Acquired directly from the artist, ca. 2000

Note:

We are pleased to present six exceptional works by Manasie Akpaliapik in this auction. Purchased directly from the artist in the mid-late 1990s, each represents a significant element of the artist’s practice, exemplifying the fertility of imagination and astounding range of technical achievement for which he has become known.

In Shaman Transformation, one side of a Janus-like composition is the face of a red-eyed creature emerging from a surround of bone atop an implied earth-like sphere of open space. The being wields the implements of the shaman, a drum and beater. Above the creature hovers a relief-carved sun and moon—imagery in shamanic masks of the Western Arctic that is often symbolic of the firmament. [1] Turning to the other side of the composition, the viewer is greeted by two dispassionate faces staring out at them. The figures follow the curvature of the porous and pitted bone from which they emerge. On this side of the composition, the circular drum of the shaman is adorned with a face, suspended in mid-air by the mysterious figures posed around the central void.

(1) Dorothy Jean Ray, Eskimo Masks Art and Ceremony, (Seattle & London: University of Washington Press, 1975), 67.


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