Susie Silook is a world-renowned Siberian Yupik and Inupiaq ivory sculptor known for her fine craftsmanship and emotive carvings. Silook’s preferred media is walrus ivory, which she often combines with wood, fur, and antler to create hauntingly beautiful female beings that speak of trauma, recovery, and violence against Indigenous women. Often these figures will be in a state of transformation and take on a supernatural or spiritual aspect that, through their materiality, speak to a deep connection to culture and the land. Silook’s works are highly sought after and have appeared in a number of important exhibitions including Arts from the Arctic: an Exhibition of Circumpolar Art by Indigenous Artists from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Sapmi (Lapland), and Russia (1993), This is not a Silent Movie: Four Contemporary Alaska Native Artists (2014), Living Alaska: A Decade of Collecting Contemporary Art for Alaska Museums (2016), and Decolonizing Alaska (2017). Silook was also the recipient of a Governor’s Award for an Individual Artist (2000), an Eitlejorg Fellowship (2001), and a United States Artist Rasmuson Fellowship (2007). [1]

This large and complex assemblage depicts a winged female emerging from an inverted and intricately carved caribou antler. The body and head of the Caribou Spirit is made of marine ivory, while the wings are carved from wood. The head of the figure is adorned with carved caribous antlers. The legs of the figure are seamlessly fused to the antler, creating a cohesive composition between the body, antler, and wings. The incised designs on the antler and ivory have been enhanced with red pigment, baleen inlays, and a turquoise stone mounted into the chest of the Caribou Spirit. The sculpture is mounted on a dowl and base for display. A serene, yet unsettling, beautiful work of art.

1. Decolonizing Alaska exhibition catalogue. 2017. Bunnell Street Arts Center, Homer, Alaska, unpag.

Christopher W. Smith