ABRAHAM ANGHIK RUBEN, O.C. (1951-) PAULATUK / SALT SPRING ISLAND, B.C
unsigned.
ESTIMATE: $5,000 — $8,000
Further images
In this large work by Abraham Anghik Ruben, which is over 2.5 ft wide, the Sea Goddess's body is arranged as a single, continuous sentence of stone. She lies propped up on a shoulder, both recumbent and regal, to signal that repose is her authority. Her hair falls loose, and that detail hints at that she is angered as she waits for the shaman and his comb to come. Yet there is no sign of that here on her face or posture. Instead, she reads as at ease, settled into her own gravity.
On the rear of the work, a variety of animals and figures run along her back and gather into the mass of her hair, bound into the design like currents collecting and carrying.
The massive chunk of stone used by the artist is beautifully mottled and speckled, with warm rusts, cloudy greys, and seaweed greens shifting across the surface. This varied surface reads across Sedna’s body like light broken by ripples and then caught again as it moves through water. Against the softly shifting ground, her inlaid eyes glitter like glass, small points of clarity held in a drifting sea. Brilliant.
Provenance
Images Art Gallery, Toronto;Acquired from the above the present Private Collection, Toronto.
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