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Artworks
OVILOO TUNNILLIE, R.C.A. (1949-2014) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Fly, c. late 1980sstone, 3.5 x 13.5 x 11.5 in (8.9 x 34.3 x 29.2 cm)
signed, "ᐅᕕᓗ / ᑐᓂᓕ".
LOT 5
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500Further images
Fly is a delightful and typically daring departure from Oviloo’s usual subject matter. Interestingly, there have been various depictions of insects in Inuit art over the years, in sculpture, graphic...Fly is a delightful and typically daring departure from Oviloo’s usual subject matter. Interestingly, there have been various depictions of insects in Inuit art over the years, in sculpture, graphic art, and even in works on cloth. With her usual flair for elegance, and in this case a quite precise clarity of form, Oviloo has created an intriguing and quite remarkable sculpture. Fly seems uncannily anatomically correct – at least so far as we can see without a microscope – and if Oviloo has taken any artistic liberties, it is to make the insect look like a jet fighter. Oviloo is known to have depicted at least one airplane during her career, by the way.
References: For a depiction of an airplane by the artist see Odette Leroux, Marion E. Jackson and Minnie Aodla Freeman, ed., Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre / Gatineau: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1994), p. 232. For interesting depictions of insects by various Inuit artists see Harold Seidelman & James Turner, The Inuit Imagination: Arctic Myth and Sculpture, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1993), figs. 5 and 6, p. 24-25.Provenance
Private Collection, San Francisco.
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