Pattern Play
IAF staff pay homage to some of their favourite stitched motifs
1/ Marion Tuu’luq, RCA
Untitled (c. 1970s)
This wall hanging by Marion Tuu’luq (1910– 2002) is playfully symbolic, using geometric jux tapositions and a sur feit of concentric pat terning to joy ful ef fect. Yet this highly abstract piece, a work of imagining, is equally painterly. Tuu’luq has constructed a landscape of appliqué and stitches so intricate and variegated that to my eye, it comes to life as the Arctic tundra—land that represents so much fullness in the Inuit imagination.
In Tuu’luq’s hands, scraps are reworked into clusters of possibility, every space filled, making her a bit of a bricoleur. And while the ar tist largely adheres to the conventions of balance, our experience of each variation of shape, colour or line serves as a reminder that no two are the same. Nuna and what it embodies—the eternal return of life—is woven into this expression of ar tistic exploration and yearning.
CRYSTAL SHI Editorial Assistant
2/ Sheojuk Oqutaq
Woman Standing (c. 1955)
Standing just shy of 15 centimetres, this luminescent ivory sculpture by Sheojuk Oqutaq (1920–1982) is deceptively large. Featuring highly detailed pat terning, Oqutaq has outfitted his subject with beautiful fur kamiit, a skillfully craf ted amauti complete with a full, billowing hood and graphic, dashed ties as well as delicate lashes and the ar tist ’s signature: perfectly symmetrical braids.
Created early in his career, this piece draws much from the tradition of ivory miniatures but is rendered at a scale that would allow it to hold its own alongside the stone sculptures the artist was producing by this time. A fitting example of Oqutaq’s acumen for human figures, Woman Standing is also a tender and specific por trait of a young woman, her stance assured and level.
BRITT GALLPEN Editorial Director
3/ Ningiukulu Teevee
Symphony of Owls (2007)
The swooping forms of more than fifty birds glide through the darkness of Ningiukulu Teevee’s Symphony of Owls, their yellow eyes alert for prey. Their outstretched wings lend a ghostly, otherworldly atmosphere, heightened by a rich black background and the bluish cast that tinges some of their wings.
On closer inspection, this is not a form of supernatural transparency, but rather Teevee using colour to achieve depth and space—a sense that the birds are emerging from the darkness around them. The addition of feathery texture to the birds in the background makes the pure white focal points even more prominent. Although normally known as a parliament of owls, the almost rhythmic dip and sway of this grouping much better recalls the symphonic harmonies for which the piece was named.
JESSICA MACDONALD Online Editor
4/ Evelyn Douglas
Grass Basket and Mat (2006)
The intricate geometry of this grass basket was woven by the exper t hands of Evelyn Douglas from Naparyaarmiut (Hooper Bay), Alaska, who has been weaving for over thir ty years since she first learned her tight knits from her mother and other weavers. Naparyaarmiut is located on the YukonKuskokwim Delta, where the sediments and brackish water create the ideal environment for rich, grassy marshes. This space, where the land and sea meet, is where the Yup’ik collect their tough grasses—ideal for tightly woven water-resistant baskets.
Traditional Yup’ik baskets have been woven for decades out of grasses and baleen, and this delicate pat tern is woven with natural coarse grass and dyed grass to create the coiled, almost hypnotic pat tern.
NAPATSI FOLGER Contributing Editor
5/ Sakarine Steenholdt
Kamiit (c. 1970s)
With their delicate lace snowflakes, intricate roses and avittat pattern crafted from dyed sealskin, these beautiful kamiit were sewn as par t of the spectacular national dress of Greenland, famous worldwide for its intricate beaded collars, called perlekrave. These kamiit are a stitching together of cultures: Greenlandic kamiit are typically made using sealskin but have come to incorporate Scandinavian design elements, including the lace and those finely embroidered flowers decorating the boot’s midway bands. Traditionally a women’s ar t form, they are hardly static. Kamiit designs constantly adapt to new materials and innovations, but remain an integral par t of traditional tex tiles.
EMILY HENDERSON Profiles Editor