Next to portraits of women (including self-portraits), depictions of Sedna the Inuit sea goddess are Oviloo’s favourite subjects. This low-slung version shows Sedna in a beautifully hydrodynamic pose. We imagine her skimming along the sea floor, almost like a manta ray. Oviloo sweeps the goddess’s tail forward with elegant compositional flair born of necessity, given the shape of the stone. The sculpture is a brilliant invention, one of the most elegant portrayals of Sedna that we have seen. As with a number of Oviloo’s portraits of women, Sedna’s hair constitutes an important and spectacular visual statement. A quite similar work is illustrated in the 1996 solo exhibition catalogue published by Marion Scott Gallery.

References: For a very similar work see Marion Scott Gallery, Oviloo (Vancouver: Marion Scott Gallery, 1996), cat. 11 (plus other depictions of Sedna). See also Marion Scott Gallery, Oviloo Tunnillie (Vancouver: Marion Scott Gallery, 1994). For an overview of Oviloo’s life and career see the important retrospective exhibition catalogue: Darlene Coward Wight, Oviloo Tunnillie: A Woman’s Story in Stone (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 2016). Also see the articles by Peter Millard, “Meditations on Womanhood: Oviloo Tunnillie” in IAQ (Winter 1994:20-25); and by Robert Kardosh, “Transcending the Particular: Feminist Vision in the Sculpture of Oviloo Tunnillie” in IAQ (Fall 2009:24-33).