Inuit Art: Drum Dancer
Inuit Artist: Joanie Saittuq (1927-?)
Size: 10" high, 8" wide, 7" deep
Community: Spense Bay, NU 7/25
Material: Baselite & Caribou Antler
id: w-9980hjjy
**This Item is Eligible for our 0% Interest Layaway Plan
Masterpiece Carving! Museum quality Sculpture!
SHOW ME YOUR TEETH is carved in the Gjoa Haven style.
Gjoa Haven is on King William Island across from Spense Bay (Taloyoak) which is on the mainland.
The Gjoa Haven style is UNFORGETTABLE.
All the features are asymmetric: the inlaid large eyes are situated high in the forehead, the teeth are pegs and stumps, the posture of the pieces are not realistic (a leg may be bent forward) but their innocent charm is hard to ignore!
Show Me also is a Drum Dancer.
True to the Grotesque style of Gjoa Haven, Show's drum looks limp and impossible to beat.
But he clutches his baton ready to try.
These unique creatures are comical and full of optimism.
Notice the trim on the hood of his parka?
Does it remind you of the Elizabethan RUFF (up to 600 pleats) popular in the 1500 and 1600's in England.?
Drum Dancers are revered in their communities as the keeper and teacher of local history.
Perhaps the illusion of a ruff is to honor Show's elevated status.
Or more likely, it is a thick warm collar of fur.
Art. Beauty and interpretation is in the eye of the beholder.
PROUDLY CANADIAN SINCE 2007
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