Works on Cloth

The small northern Canadian community of Baker Lake has been home to some of the foremost Inuit artists of contemporary times. While recognised widely for its stone sculpture and prints, it is in the realm of textile art that this remote community has made its most important mark on Canadian art. Invented by Baker Lake women artists in the early 1970s and practised to this day, Inuit wall hangings are a form of applique in which images are cut from felt and sewn to wool backings, often enlivened by embroidered surfaces. At once contemporary and traditional, these colourful images range in subject matter from the supernatural to the folkloric and ethnographic.