
Ingmars Lindbergs
Director
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US$30,000 - US$40,000
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Provenance
Per the collector, purchased directly from the artist
Illustrated
Dubin, Lois Sherr, Arctic Transformations: The Jewelry of Denise & Samuel Wallace, Easton Studio Press/Theodore Dubin Foundation, New York, NY, 2005, p. 199, fig. 207
The "Fetish Necklace" illustrates the artist's focus on transformation: each figure is detachable, so the wearer can add or subtract length from the necklace as they see fit. Furthermore, each fetish can be worn on its own as a pin or pendant.
For the present piece, Wallace took her inspiration from 19th century Inuit carved ivory fetishes of human figures: "Some of the carvings are full body figures, whereas others are simply a stump of a body with no arms. These older fetish pieces might be used as part of a doll or to bring blessings" (Dubin p. 199)