Kahootsuak was Andy Miki’s wife and the sister of Andy Aulatjut, the leader of the Ihalmiut (Caribou Inuit) camp at Ennadai Lake, a camp that included Aulatjut’s wife Elizabeth Nutaraaluk, Luke and Mary Ajaq Anowtalik, and other future Arviat artists. After their rescue from starvation, Kahootsuak and Miki moved to Rankin Inlet before settling in Arviat. Kahootsuak’s carvings - often depicting mothers and children, or simply two faces shown together or in opposition - are generally quite simple in form yet strongly suggestive of emotion and affection. This sculpture exhibits the artist’s trademark facial features with their angular T-shaped nose-brow formations, but not the equally angular U-shaped folded arms seen in many of her works. We love the powerful and quite abstract shapes that loosely define the figures’ heads and bodies; the work must be held in the hand to be fully appreciated.

Literature: For a masterpiece by the artist see Gerald McMaster ed., Inuit Modern: The Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection (Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 2010), p. 86. See also Marion Scott Gallery, Vision and Form: The Norman Zepp – Judith Varga Collection of Inuit Art (Vancouver, 2003), cat. 76; Walker’s Auctions, Ottawa, Nov. 2016, Lot 82.