Reclining Walrus
by Pudlalik Shaa, Inuit
Kimmirut (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada
soapstone, bone tusks
5" high x 12" long x 7" deep
***Restoration on back flipper by Jason Jones at The Conservation Lab.
Pudlalik Shaa was born and raised in Cape Dorset. He learned to carve when he was around twelve years old. A self-taught carver, Pudlalik learned most about the art by watching his father Axangayu Shaa, “and other carvers who used to use an axe [when they carved].” Pudlalik still uses hand tools like an axe of a saw when he carves, but he also uses power tools. Now the father of four children, Pudlalik carves at least every other day. He works primarily with stone and his sculptures average about fourteen inches high.
Pudlalik’s favorite subjects to carve are human figures such as drum dancers. Although he finds it hard to decide what to make before he begins to carve, Pudlalik admits, “Sometimes I know what I want to make immediately.” Pudlalik remembers forming a carving group with other peers in his community. “In the group, there was: Pitseolak Oshutsiaq who now lives in Iqaluit, Pallaya Qiatsuk and Kooyoo Pudlat. We started carving as a group and shared tools.” Pudlalik also received a diploma for a carving course he attended at Arctic College in Lake Harbor. Pudlalik traveled south in 1989 to Toronto with fellow Cape Dorset sculptor Ohito Ashoona for an exhibition opening. When asked what he thought of the south form that experience, he summated “It was a big and polluted.”
