Marion Tuu’luq began experimenting with spiritual, mythological, and animal-human transformation imagery as early as 1971. Works on cloth such as My Homeland from 1973 and Night Sky from 1974, illustrated in the 2002 National Gallery of Canada exhibition catalogue Marion Tuu’luq (cats. 4 and 7) illustrate fish-people and human-faced totems. Humans and spirits populate the lower tier of Tuu’luq’s spectacular Crowd of People of 1974 (NGC cat. 10 and First Arts, 14 Jun 2022, Lot 36). Works such as Laughing at Men with Big Noses from 1978 (NGC cat. 19), and an untitled work from the mid 1970s (see First Arts, Dec. 2020, Lot 105), add another (and hilarious) line of imagery to the mix [1].

Few works on cloth by the artist synthesize and truly celebrate this quirky and delightful aspect of her art as much as Humans and Spirits. Sewn near the end of this artist’s sewing career, the work may also be seen as a way of acknowledging the traditional Inuit shamanic belief system that coexisted with Tuu’luq’s devout Christianity [2]. It also provides a wonderful outlet for her sense of humour.

Organizationally, if not literally, this composition has bilateral symmetry; three human figures populate the central axis, while four different animal-human creatures constitute the outer sides. Ranged between and among them is a jumble of mostly birds, human heads, and strange totemic inventions. Each of the three central figures is distinctive in its own way: the upper man proudly displays his genitalia; the central one grabs two geese by their beaks; while the lower figure – probably a woman and possibly Tuu’luq herself – faces away from us and seems to be “conducting” the whole bizarre assembly. The “men with big noses” provide more scatalogical humour, and we wonder if one of the heads isn’t shouting obscenities. Tuu’luq has created a comical and quite ribald display; we may never view her art and life in quite the same way again! Marvelous!

1. For further examples of this type of imagery see Bountiful Thoughts from 1978/79 and The Prayer Meeting from 1989 (NGC cats. 27 and 36).

2. See Marie Bouchard’s discussion of this in her essay “Negotiating a Third Space: The Works on Cloth of Marion Tuu’luq” in National Gallery of Canada, Marion Tuu’luq. (Ottawa: NGC, 2002:17-45), pp. 40-41.

References: For Tuu’luq works on cloth with similar imagery see Laughing at Men with Big Noses from 1978 in Marie Bouchard and Marie Routledge, Marion Tuu’luq, (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2002), cat. 19, p. 68; First Arts, Toronto, 1 December 2020, Lot 105. See also Jean Blodgett, Tuu'luq / Anguhadluq: An Exhibition of Works by Marion Tuu'luq and Luke Anguhadluq of Baker Lake, (Winnipeg: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1976).