This work makes it immediately clear why Paul Toolooktook was selected, at only twenty-three, to represent Inuit carving at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. Made soon after his return to Qamani'tuaq, this work presents a woman holding a swaddled child as a rounded, self-contained volume, with mother and child interlocked as one sculptural unit. This physical enclosure gives the work a potent cohesion and emotional force.

Unlike many mother and child subjects in Inuit art, which tend toward repose and stillness, this example occupies space through motion rather than reserve. Here, the woman’s legs are planted in a wide step, her body pitched forward; her figure feels caught mid-stride, animated by a powerful forward thrust.

From every angle, Toolooktook handles the form beautifully, including from above, where both soft, rounded faces lift upward as if sensing our presence and raising their faces to meet our gaze.