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Artworks
SHUVINAI ASHOONA (1961-) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Images on Earths, 2011coloured pencil and ink on paper, 17.75 x 25.5 in (44.9 x 65 cm)
signed, "ᓱᕕᓇᐃ ᐊᓱᓇ";
titled, "ᐊᑲᓇᐊᔭᖅᑎ / ᐃᓚᒋᓐ/ ᓯᓚᖅᔪᐊᒥᑐᐃᓐ".LOT 61
ESTIMATE: $4,000 — $6,000
PRICE REALIZED: $5,124.00Shuvinai’s Images on Earths is a poignant commentary on daily life in Kinngait, albeit set in a fantastical scene containing several large images of the Earth, all hovering alongside a...Shuvinai’s Images on Earths is a poignant commentary on daily life in Kinngait, albeit set in a fantastical scene containing several large images of the Earth, all hovering alongside a bizarre bear transformation holding yet another Earth. Three of the Earth images contain depictions of everyday life: people interacting, driving snowmobiles, or collecting garbage. The fourth shows a figure holding a lifeless body, alluding to the frequency of suicide in the North, a subject that the artist has revisited several times. Does the mysterious bear offer a pristine world in which suicide might not exist?
References: For numerous drawings with similar imagery see Gaëtane Verna ed., Shuvinai Ashoona: Mapping Worlds, (Toronto: The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery / Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2019). See also Nancy G. Campbell, Shuvinai Ashoona: Life & Work, (Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2019).
Provenance
Collection of John and Joyce Price, Seattle.