Nuna Parr
Inuit
Dancing Polar
Bear
13 1/2"
H x 11" W
Nuna Parr's parents, the late
Parr and Eleeshushe, are renowned graphic artists from the older
generation. His brother, Epirvik, is a carver. Nuna has been
carving since the 1960's, preferring wildlife for his subjects.
Nuna and his family have left Cape Dorset for a more traditional
lifestyle, relying on hunting and carving for their livelihood.
Nuna Parr is presently on
the Board of Directors of the Inuit Art Foundation in Ottawa,
ON.
"His interest in hunting
and his regard for the animal life of the Arctic are directly
reflected in his work. Nuna's rounded forms have great movement
and a natural flow with the grain of the stone, as if both were
made for each other. He has been carving for forty years and
his work continues to be shown nationally and internationally."
- quoted from Cape Dorset Sculpture,
Douglas & McIntyre, 2005
Cape Dorset is located north
of Hudson Bay on the southwest tip of Baffin Island, well above
the treeline and just south of the Arctic Circle.
The Inuit inhabitants have
always called the area Kinngait (pronounced king-ite), meaning
"the place of hills," but it was named Cape Dorset
in 1631 by the British explorer Captain Luke Foxe, who mapped
the region during his unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage;
he named it in honour of the Earl of Dorset, who had sponsored
the expedition.
Today, Cape Dorset is a modern
community of nearly fourteen hundred inhabitants in the newly
created Canadian territory of Nunavut.
The Inuit people of the arctic
have become masterful stone sculptors as a result of the cultural
heritage. Hunting is an essential part of survival, and Inuit
hunters believed that they could honor the animal spirits by
creating their likeness in stone.
By doing so, the animal spirits
would oblige them with a successful hunt. Young men, eager to
gain recognition and devoted to providing for their families,
would carve in earnest - each trying to outdo the other.
Today, the artistic expression
of this culture remains strong, and the Inuit people continue
to produce some of the most beautiful, detailed, and graceful
stone sculpture in the world.
