Discombobulated Woman, 1995–96

Shuvinai Ashoona, Discombobulated Woman, 1995–96, fineliner pen and coloured pencil on paper, 33 x 50.7 cm, Dorset Fine Arts, Toronto.
Discombobulated Woman is a forerunner of the many disjointed or disconcerting figures in landscapes in Shuvinai’s oeuvre that would follow. It shows an Inuk artist taking an approach unique to those that had come before her—her style had not been seen in drawings coming out of Cape Dorset before this time.
It is best not to read Discombobulated Woman’s title too literally, as the work was likely not titled by the artist. Most Cape Dorset works are titled in the South, although this is beginning to change.
Gallery

Discombobulated Woman, 1995–96

Composition (Overlooking Cape Dorset), 2003

Three Cousins, 2005

Composition (Egg in Landscape), 2006

Composition (Two Men and a Spider), 2007–08

Titanic, Nascopie, and Noah’s Ark, 2008

Earth and Sky (detail), 2008

Oh My Goodness, 2011

Happy Mother, 2013

Composition (Attack of the Tentacle Monsters), 2015