Mother and Child : a theme little represented in Inuit sculpture
The representation of a mother and her child in sculpture is not a frequent subject in the Inuit art contrary to the qallunaat art (not Inuit) where this topic appears in the religious as profane representations. This theme remains relatively recent in the history of Inuit art although it is more present in contemporary graphics art than in sculpture.
Formerly, the miniature representation of human characters (inunnguaq it inuktitut) only consisted of the making of shaman amulets and toys for the children, in the form of small ivory or bone carvings and skins dolls. It is only from 1950s with the launch of the artistic programs in the Arctic that raises the stone sculpture of humans.
Carved characters in stone are mostly hunter with or without game in small size. This topic is particularly spread, especially since the artists are above all hunters, formerly as today ; their artistic creations are drawn from their own experiences.
Inuit women also involve in the artistic production: if formerly they dedicated themselves more in drawing, in tapestry or in the clothing making, women of the Arctic communities want to diversify their activities while increasing their incomes and some of them started carving…. Thus, new iconographic topics appear with more feminine subjects such as the maternity and the mother to the child or feminine activities in camps.
Sat or up, the mother is represented almost always with her child in the hood of her amauti (feminine jacket): only the head of the baby is then visible. It is about an identical very strong symbol because the amauti remains the feminine traditional garment par excellence, in a society where the maternity is very valued. This mode of representation is the most the common, even if sometimes, the mother carries her child in the arms or holds him/her the hand if this one is bigger.
The mother and child topic is one of Mary Usutsiaq’s favourite subjects, from Kinngait. Nevertheless, the artists who sculpture the theme of the maternity are not exclusively women: Booby Aupaluqtuq, a young sculptor from Inujjuaq, represents this theme among the others.
http://www.inuitartzone.com/fr/artistes/210/bobby-aupaluktuk/oeuvres/
