SHEOJUK ETIDLOOIE (1932-1999) KINNGAIT (CAPE DORSET)
Shaman's Hands, 1998 #24
Printmaker: STUDIO PM, Montreal
etching and aquatint, plate: 23.5 x 24.75 in (59.7 x 62.9 cm) / sheet: 32.25 x 31.5 in (81.9 x 80 cm)
41/50

ESTIMATE: $2,500 — $3,500

Provenance
Collection of John and Joyce Price, Seattle.

Late in life, Sheojuk Etidlooie enjoyed a short but brilliant art career. Her work immediately stood out as being fresh and unique. As one of twelve prints in the 1998 annual collection, Shaman’s Hands fits within Sheojuk’s tendency to combine the loosely naturalistic with the outright fantastical. The shaman’s abbreviated facial features peer out from under a massive hood (which eerily echoes his face); his disembodied hands float like gloves; his bare-chested body is legless. Both his face and chest appear strangely wrinkled or scarred. It’s a remarkable image, simultaneously spooky and hilarious, with a shaman who appears at once ancient and infantile. This work, masterfully printed by Studio PM, resembles another print from the collection, Shaman’s Trance (1998 #25); we would love to have observed Sheojuk working through these ideas during her drawing sessions at the Kinngait studio.

References: For biographical information and other works by the artist, see First Arts, The Graphic Art of Sheojuk Etidlooie, exh. 26 Jan - 22 February 2021. For similar works by the artist see the First Arts online exhibition Etching and Aquatint: Free Flowing Experimentation, September-October 2020, viewable on this website.