The moods of Nuilaalik’s hybrid creations vary from agitated or ecstatic, to trance-like or serene. Bird-Caribou-Shaman Transformation beautifully embodies the latter mood. The shaman’s human face seems to look directly at the viewer, and yet we feel that his mind and spirit are elsewhere; he truly is “possessed” by the animal spirits whose bodies he temporarily inhabits. Nuilaalik, who claimed to have no direct knowledge of shamanism and spirits, certainly had the uncanny ability to capture the “in-between” spaces where the worlds of animals and humans intersect and overlap in traditional Inuit beliefs.

Literature: For other fine transformation pieces by Nuilaalik see Marion Scott Gallery, Two Great Image Makers from Baker Lake (Vancouver, 1999), figs. 13, 17, 30, 32. See also First Arts, July 2020, Lot 95. See also Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2012, Lot 81; Nov. 2013, Lot 114; May 2014, Lot 42; Nov. 2014, Lot 15; Nov. 2015, Lot 18; Ingo Hessel, Arctic Spirit: Inuit Art from the Albrecht Collection at the Heard Museum (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Phoenix: Heard Museum, 2006), cats. 30, 66.