Katajjaq

Charlotte Qamaniq and Kendra Tagoona
20 x 16 inches, oil on reproduction on canvas, 2017

They look like angels, Charlotte Qamaniq and Kendra Tagoona, in their traditional Inuit outfits. They are, however, not the two singers heard on Katajjait on "Hamma" that I found on UbuWeb performed by an anonymous female duet. Katajjaq is a form of throat singing performed as a game by Canadian Inuits, mostly women. The painting is done on a reproduction of a painting situated in what looks like the Mediterranean, the worst kind of commercial art. The piece was produced to fake out the customer. Even though it is a reproduction, someone was hired to, with a clear gel medium, go over the reproduction to give it texture, to make it appear as if it were a real painting. Over the years the colors have faded into blue, as photographic reproductions tend to do. A giveaway is the so called "gallery-wrap" in which the painting continues around the edges. In this reproduction the texture does not continue around the edges, the reproduction of the painting, cropped of course, is flat when goes around the edge. It's a bone of contention, the bane of my teaching at cultural art centers. To my great annoyance a number of teachers teach their students to adopt the 'gallery-wrap." The students learn to lie to their customers for the sake of selling their work. OK, I got that out of the way...so be aware!