Bone Tupaliks

A tupalik can be a flayed horse, or a skeleton. It signifies the familiar, a spirit that can be used to cast a spell. Prior to 1972, the carvers utilized killer whale teeth, hollowing them out around the nerve, which could be easily removed to create an 'in the round' effect in the sculpture. Since the 1972 moratorium on whaling, tupaliks have more typically been made from caribou bone. The tupaliks depicted in this series are early examples, mostly made with whale teeth.