'''Tarralik Duffy''' (born in 1979) is an Inuk multimedia artist from Coral Harbour (Salliq), in Nunavut, Canada.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Inuit Art |date=October 17, 2018 |title=Tarralik Duffy {{!}} IAQ Profiles |url=https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/lite/profiles/artist/Tarralik-Duffy |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Inuit Art Foundation |language=en}}</ref> She currently resides primarily in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as of 2021, but continues to split her time between Saskatoon and Coral Harbour.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=IAQ |title=What Drives Inuit Artist Tarralik Duffy to Create |url=https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/lite/iaq-online/what-drives-inuit-artist-tarralik-duffy-to-create |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Inuit Art Foundation |language=en}}</ref> She works with various mediums and techniques, including sculpture, drawing, photography, textiles, printmaking, digital mediums, writing, and music.<ref name=":0" /> Her early life inspired elements of her artistic career, resulting in a variety of visual art pieces and publications that have also been recognized through exhibitions and awards.
Variations of Tarralik Duffy are the names Adina Applebum<ref>{{Cite web |title=little foxes, by adina applebum/ tarralik duffy |url=https://adinaapplebum.bandcamp.com/album/little-foxes |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=adina applebum/ tarralik duffy |language=en}}</ref> and Adina Tarralik Duffy.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Imago Mundi Collection |url=https://imagomundicollection.org/artworks/adina-tarralik-duffy-inuit-pop-art-pipsi/ |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=imagomundicollection.org}}</ref>
== Early life == Duffy was born in Coral Harbour, where she lived with her parents, Leonie and Ron Duffy.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Nunavut artist creates beauty from skin and bone |url=https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/65674nunavut_artist_creates_beauty_from_skin_and_bone/ |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Nunatsiaq News |language=en}}</ref> Her parents have owned and operated a hotel called Leonie's Place in Coral Harbour since the 1980s.<ref name=":3" />
She first began taking an interest in art by drawing with her older sister. However, she stated she has always wanted to be an artist.<ref name=":1" /> At the beginning of her career, she found it challenging to commit due to personal reasons; however, she drew strength from the support of others and the encouragement to commit to her ideas fully.<ref name=":1" />
== Artistic career == Tarralik is inspired by her family, specifically her sister, father, and grandmother. She states that her father taught her to play with language and not to take it too seriously, which has influenced many of her artworks to be a play on words.<ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Power |first=T. |date=November 23, 2023 |title=How Tarralik Duffy uses pop art to show her memories of life in Nunavut |url=https://www.cbc.ca/arts/q/tarralik-duffy-gasoline-rainbows-interview-visual-companion-1.7036588 |work=CBC news}}</ref> Furthermore, she drew inspiration from her grandmother's cooking, clothing and the time they spent together.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=A Quickstop run with Tarralik Duffy |url=https://readfoyer.com/article/quickstop-run-tarralik-duffy?utm_source=AGO |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Foyer |language=en}}</ref> She started a design company called ''Ugly Fish'' as an homage to her grandmother, whose Inuktitut nickname, Kanajuq, translates to "ugly fish."<ref name=":0" />
Duffy stated that much of her art helps her reconnect and strengthen her relationship with her culture, which she felt she had not truly appreciated when she was younger and was rejected for a time as she grew older.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Holm |first=Alexandria |title=" Interview with Inuit Fashion Designers = Entretiens avec des créateurs de mode inuits " Printed Textiles From Kinngait Studios |last2=Shaughnessy |first2=Roxane |date=2020 |publisher=Textile Museum of Canada.}}</ref> Many of her pieces are inspired by the products she saw during her childhood, such as those in her home and the ''Quickstop'' (Northern Store) convenience stores in Nunavut.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=Tarralik Duffy: Let's Go Quickstop |url=https://ago.ca/exhibitions/tarralik-duffy-lets-go-quickstop |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Art Gallery of Ontario |language=en}}</ref> Many of the products depicted in Duffy's art are not of Indigenous origin but are deeply rooted in the culture and daily lives of Inuit.<ref name=":4" /> She also incorporates Inuktitut syllabics in her pieces to help preserve and commemorate the beauty of the language.<ref name=":5" />
Duffy has stated that much of her inspiration for her jewelry pieces comes from time spent on beaches, such as seeing the bones of belugas, for example, and finding them beautiful rather than disgusting. Furthermore, she states that she finds beauty in mundane things, such as pop cans, which feature in her art.<ref name=":1" />
== Major works == ===Visual art=== * ''Jerry Cans'' (2023) - Jerry Cans is a soft sculpture of a red plastic gas can (Jerrycan), commonly used and seen throughout Coral Harbour. The piece is intended to represent finding the beauty in everyday objects and serves as a reminder of home.<ref name=":8" /> * ''Black Gold'' (2021) - Black gold is another pop art style digital illustration piece featuring China Lily soy sauce bottles in a repeating grid pattern meant to represent the bottles on store shelves in Nunavut.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |date=2025-02-28 |title=Samples of Contemporary Inuit Culture |url=https://uphere.ca/articles/samples-contemporary-inuit-culture |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Up Here Publishing |language=ca-EN}}</ref> One element of inspiration for this piece includes cultural and shared nostalgia.<ref name=":7" /> * ''Inuit Pop Art'' (2015) - In various media and works, Duffy features a Pepsi-like pop can that, instead of Pepsi, features the word pipsi (ᐱᑉᓯ) in Inuktitut syllabics. The work is a play on words on multiple levels, as the style is pop art, and it features a pop can, and pipsi means dried fish, particularly char, in Inuktitut combining multiple elements of culture and her inspiration in everyday objects.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Inuarak-Dall |first=Leanne |title=Tarralik Duffy Through 5 Works of Art |url=https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/lite/iaq-online/tarralik-duffy-through-5-works-of-art |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Inuit Art Foundation |language=en}}</ref>
===Publications=== * ''Don't Cry Over Spilled Beads'' (2014) - This is a short nonfiction story about the moments she shared with her grandmother over her lifetime. It touches on elements of Duffy's grief, love, body image, and, ultimately, the lessons of her grandmother.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-03-01 |title=Don't Cry Over Spilled Beads |url=https://www.uphere.ca/articles/dont-cry-over-spilled-beads |access-date=2025-03-05 |website=Up Here Publishing |language=ca-EN}}</ref>
== Exhibitions and distinctions == ===Exhibitions (solo and collective)=== * ''Tarralik Duffy: Let's Go Quickstop'' exhibition, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2023.<ref name=":6" /> * ''Gasoline Rainbows'' exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 2023.<ref name=":0" />
===Distinctions=== * 2021 recipient of the "Kenojuak Ashevak Memorial Award".<ref name=":6" /> * In 2014, she received the "Sally Manning Award for Aboriginal Creative Nonfiction" for her piece ''Don't Cry Over Spilled Beads''.<ref name=":2" /> * In 2018, she received the "Best Canadian Essays Publication Award" for her essay titled ''Uvanga/Self: Picturing Our Identity''.<ref name=":0" />
== References == <references />
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duffy, Tarralik}} Category:Wikipedia Student Program Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Inuit people Category:21st-century Inuit artists Category:Inuit from Nunavut Category:Canadian Inuit women artists Category:Canadian Inuit artists Category:Multimedia artists