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Artworks
VICTORIA MAMNGUQSUALUK (1930-2016) QAMANI'TUAQ (BAKER LAKE)
Scenes from the Legend of Kiviuq, c. 1990duffle, felt, embroidery floss, and cotton thread, 37.5 x 29 in (95.3 x 73.7 cm)
signed, "ᒪᒍᓯᐊᓗ".LOT 10
ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500While many artists have explored the legend of Kiviuq, the immortal and shape-shifting wanderer of the Arctic, few have returned to him with the same intensity and imaginative depth as...While many artists have explored the legend of Kiviuq, the immortal and shape-shifting wanderer of the Arctic, few have returned to him with the same intensity and imaginative depth as Victoria Mamnguqsualuk. Across drawings, prints, and textiles, she revisited his adventures not to repeat them, but to expand a narrative world that felt entirely her own.
This work presents a series of vignettes rather than a continuous storyline. We see Kiviuq catching his Fox Wife before she can reclaim her skin, confronting the cannibal Bee-Woman, riding the fantastical Two-Headed Dog, and facing off with a Grizzly. Each episode is rendered with striking clarity and visual wit, demonstrating Mamnguqsualuk’s remarkable ability to distill a complex tale into succinct, animated scenes.
The felt is enriched with dense, expressive embroidery. Clothing seams are carefully laid, fringe flows from the coats of human figures, and the animals are adorned with long feather stitches that create a sense of fur, movement, and weight. Every figure feels alive, textured, and intentional. Rather than simply illustrating a legend, Mamnguqsualuk invites us into it, transforming oral history into something visual, tangible, and deeply compelling. Kiviuq's journey, in her hands, becomes not just a story told, but a world remembered.
Provenance
Collection of John & Joyce Price, Seattle
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