Works on Cloth
Imagery by Artists of Baker Lake, Nunavut
Although recognized widely for its stone sculpture and prints, it
is in the realm of textile art that the inland northern community
of Baker Lake has made its most important mark on Canadian art.
Invented by Baker Lake women artists in the late 1960s and practiced
to this day, Inuit wallhangings are a form of appliqué in
which images are cut from felt and sewn to wool backings, often
enlivened by embroidered surfaces. At once contemporary and traditional,
these colourful images range in subject matter from the supernatural
to the folkloric and ethnographic.
Published in conjunction with the Marion Scott Gallery’s
2002 exhibition of wallhangings from Baker Lake, this small, handsomely
designed publication is the first fully illustrated catalogue of
its kind devoted to this unique yet still misunderstood art form.
With colour images of over thirty contemporary examples, it includes
work by such well-known practitioners of the form as Janet Kigusiuq,
Irene Avaalaaqiaq, Nancy Sevoga and Naomi Ityi, among others. Some
of the wallhangings are accompanied by stories, while an informative
introduction by Robert Kardosh further helps to make the images
accessible to a southern audience.
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