Additional Images

Note:

Born into a family of recognized artists, Josiah Nuilaalik, son of Jessie Oonark, created an important and highly distinctive body of work late in his life. [1.] Nuilaalik’s sculptures explore images of the spirit world and of transformation. Although Nuilaalik is sometimes quoted as having said that he had not encountered the spirit images which he represented, this admission has been qualified by Harold Seidelman, once a patron of Nuilaalik’s, and author of The Inuit Imagination: Arctic Myth and Sculpture. Seidelman explains that Nuilaalik was very clear when asked where his images came from. In one instance Seidelman queried if an image of a serpent with a man’s head carved by Nuilaalik was a Biblical reference, “No!” replied Nuilaalik “This is real!”. [2]

In Shaman in Flight Nuilaalik gives us a strange liminal vision of shaman or spirit in transformation. Amorphous in form and character, it is neither man nor bird.


References:

1. McMaster, Gerald, Inuit Modern, The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection, Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2011. p. 37.

2. Seidelman, Harold, personal correspondence with the author February 17, 2022.