Goota Ashoona’s family is brimming with artistic talent. Her grandmother was the legendary Cape Dorset graphic artist Pitseolak Ashoona; her father was Kiugak (Kiawak) Ashoona, one of the foremost Kinngait sculptors; and her sister, Shuvinai Ashoona, is the most celebrated contemporary Inuit graphic artist. She moved to Yellowknife and began working alongside and collaborating with her artist-husband Bob Kussy (1959-1923). The two worked in both stone and organic materials such as whale bone; it is perhaps her sculptures in whale bone that are best known. While Kiugak’s art inspired her own career, her main stylistic influence is probably the sculpture of the Kitikmeot Region, especially the art of Nick Sikkuark. Spirit with Hanging Janus-Face is a prime example of Goota’s debt to that artist; one could be excused for mistaking this sculpture for one by Sikkuark. The body of this demonic figure is carved from an expressive piece of whale bone, while its head is fashioned from the cranium of a caribou complete with a sprouting antler. Suspended from the spirit’s hand is a much more humanoid Janus-face.