Eva Talooki Aliktiluk brought unusual tenderness and wit to small-scale sculpture. Her carvings are often modest in size and direct in form, frequently showing mothers with children, yet they never feel slight. Again and again, she found ways to make these pared-down figures vivid and affecting.

Beads play an essential role in that effect. They do more than ornament the surface. They call to mind the decoration of Inuit clothing and lend her figures a particular sense of character, intimacy, and lived presence. In antler especially, this approach is particularly compelling. The material’s rough, irregular surface gives the carving a raw, tactile force, while the small coloured beads introduce delicacy, warmth, and a note of care that gently offsets its severity.

Here, that contrast is especially memorable. The infant, shown seated in the mother’s lap, is ringed with beads around the face, a small but arresting detail that draws the eye at once. It is both playful and deeply observant, turning a humble domestic moment into something affectionate, earthy, and entirely her own.