I see myself in the carvings, having poor clothing… I try my best to make the image as close to a real person as possible. I try to show what the person is wearing and what they are doing.

— Artist interviewed by Ingo Hessel, 1989

Unlike many of her Arviat artist peers, Margaret Uyauperq aimed for a relatively high degree of naturalism in her work. Even in this quite early example by Uyauperq we see a figure of a woman standing with limbs extended and details of clothing delineated to the fullest extent possible; the wind-blown parka hood is a beautiful added touch of realism, as is the skin bag the woman holds.

Reference: for a larger but similarly styled contemporaneous work by Uyauperq depicting a woman carrying a shoulder fishing pouch, see Cynthia Waye Cook, Inuit Sculpture in the Collection of the Art Gallery of York University (Toronto: AGYU, 1988), cat. 1.

Lot 29