Joy Kiluvigyuak Hallauk

Arviat

1940 – 2000

Joy Hallauk was born in Arviat, Nunavut, in 1940. She began carving in the mid-1960’s, under the instruction of John Attok. Joy was primarily a carver, but she also enjoyed the creative freedom of making wall hangings and other textile works. Her preferred subjects were people, especially scenes depicting a mother with her child(ren).

“[Hallauk] depicts maternal or multiple head motifs in stone, using small axes and files. The bulky volumes of her figures, with their juxtaposed rounded and angular masses, present dynamic as well as powerful images. [Hallauk] also produces exquisite dolls and is probably the most gifted maker of appliqu wall hangings in Arviat. Her wall hangings generally consist of rows of figures with carved antler faces, dressed in traditional bleached caribou skin clothing decorated with elaborate bead trim, sewn onto duffle cloth. Her largest such wall-hanging measures fourteen-by-four-and-one-half feet.”

– Ingo Hessel on Halluak’s piece Kiluvigyuak In “North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary” 1995.