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Native Art Gallery

Inukshuk

Inukshuk

Artist: John Lee Pudlat

Community: Cape Dorset

Medium: Soapstone

Dimensions (in): W4.0 x H 8.0 x D6.0

Reference: 107254

$485.00 CAD
$485.00 CAD
Sale Sold

Inukshuks are invaluable aids to the Inuit who live and travel in the far North.  Built by piling rocks in a way that resembles the human form, Inukshuks are used as guides, signposts and territorial markings, as well as hunting tools to herd caribou.

Anyone who has travelled the Arctic can appreciate how vast and lonely the far North can be.  One can travel for days, even weeks, without seeing another human being.  In this environment, the sighting of an Inukshuk brings a tremendous feeling of comfort and ease; a joy of knowing that one is travelling in the right direction, and a comfort that someone has passed before.

An Inukshuk symbolizes the North and tells whoever passes that man has been there before.  It is hard to resist building an Inukshuk, even if for no real reason, other than a passing thought of becoming part of history.

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John Lee Pudlat

Johnny Lee was born on December 7, 1971, in Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada, and currently lives in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. He hails from a family of carvers; his father was the late Saila Pudlat, and his mother is Padloo Saila Pudlat. Johnny Lee is a self-taught carver who has been practicing since 1986. His work has been featured in exhibitions such as ‘Young Carvers from Cape Dorset’ at the Albers Gallery of Inuit Art in San Francisco, CA, and ‘Stone and Bone – The Inuit Master Carvers of the Canadian Arctic’ at the North West Company in the Sun Valley Centre for the Arts and Humanities, Ketchum, Idaho.