Tarralik Duffy: Let's Go Quickstop
June 16, 2023 – June 16, 2024
Located on Level 1 in Gallery 126
Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Indigenous Peoples. Learn more.
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
Tarralik Duffy dreams of a world where Inuktitut is the default language. In her drawings and sculptural works, she references objects from her own childhood that are iconic in Nunavut and embedded in Inuit contemporary culture. Quickstop was a convenience store chain in northern Canada, and “Let’s go Quickstop” is what Inuit frequently say when going to buy takeout, camping, or hunting provisions. Even though the store’s name has since changed, the phrase lives on in Nunavut.
Both nostalgic and humourous, the exhibited works depict products that were for sale during the artist’s childhood, including cigarettes, China Lily Soya Sauce, Crosby’s Molasses, Magic Baking Powder, Pepsi Cola, and Red Rose Tea.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Tarralik Duffy is a writer, multidisciplinary artist and designer from Salliq, Nunavut. Much of her work centres on contemporary Inuit culture, and her experiences as an Inuk living between her Arctic island home and city life in the south. Tarralik’s work has recently shown in Ottawa, Guelph, and Saskatoon; and her fine jewelry line Ugly Fish appears in fashion events and gallery shops across Canada. She is the 2021 recipient of the Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award. A celebrated writer on Inuit art, Tarralik’s Inuit Art Quarterly essay on artist Jutai Toonoo was featured in Best Canadian Essays 2019.
