Walrus/Dog Spirit

This characterful piece integrates dual entities, conveying the bulk and heft of walrus and the active tail and hind quarters of dog in the one delightful piece. Dogs are highly regarded by the Inuit as workers and companions while walrus are esteemed as a keeper of ancient knowledge and wisdom. 

Serpentine stone, bone
Approx. 15 x 7 x 10cm
Reg no. 7313P

Pitsiulaq (Pitseolak) Qimirpik 1982- is a young Cape Dorset carver who’s quickly established himself as both apprentice (his father is renowned Dorset carver Kelly Qimirpik) and contemporary artist. Indeed, Qimirpik has successfully distinguished himself through this very juxtaposition, marrying pop-culture signifiers with traditional carving. He sits at the helm of a surging generation of Inuit artists who are reconfiguring their position onto history, traditional media, and narrative figuration. It’s a group who’s establishing itself through an aesthetic more easily situated in the contemporary artworld, while never fully divorced from its ancestral associations and formal base. Qimirpik, like so many of his contemporaries, continues to make the link between the two.