Taleelayo

Item number Na788 from the MOA: University of British Columbia.

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Description

Print depicting Taleelayo, the spirit of the sea, in profile with a human face on the stylized body of a sea creature. Her face is outlined in black with black hair, and her orange body has white gills and fins with a tail composed of curved black lines. The names of the artist and printmaker are stamped in Inuit syllabics above the Cape Dorset stylized red igloo seal above the image on the right-hand side. Below the image is written, "Taleelayo Stone Cut 7/50 Dorset 1974 Pitaloosee." The Canadian Eskimo Arts Council's blind embossed stamp is in the lower right-hand corner.

History Of Use

Contemporary Inuit prints were first produced at Cape Dorset in 1957. Although precursors to printmaking can be seen in women's skin applique work and in men's incising of ivory, stone and bone, the impetus for printmaking was as a commercial venture. This venture was established jointly by Inuit artists and John Houston, the civil administrator for Cape Dorset. Other Inuit communities quickly followed the commercial success of Cape Dorset's West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative. Printmaking developed as a communal activity following a Japanese, rather than a Western, model of serigraph production. Each year the cooperatives produce a series of limited edition prints which are sold in the retail art market. In 1965, the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council was established from the Canadian Eskimo Art Committee to ensure high standards were maintained. Printmaking, along with stone carving, provide cash income for communities which have undergone rapid and significant change, during the late 20th century, from traditional hunting based societies to settled communities dependent on consumer goods. The prevalent images depicted in Inuit art are of traditional life, arctic animals and mythology. Recently, contemporary subjects have been depicted by a minority of artists.

Iconographic Meaning

Taleelayo is considered to be the mother spirit of the sea.

Cultural Context

contemporary art

Item History

Made by Pitaloosie Saila (Maker) and Timothy Ottochie (Technician) in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada and Kinngait, Nunavut, Canada during 1974
Collected before 1983
Owned by Guenter Adolphs before December 15, 1983
Received from Guenter Adolphs (Donor) on December 15, 1983