From the Editor
Each new issue of the Quarterly provides our team with the opportunity to do a “deep dive” into a specific material or idea to bring you the best on the subject, peppered with unanticipated and often surprising details, anecdotes or historical gems. For us Bone is no exception. Without pause, our favourite linguistic find was learning the colloquial term for the inner tissue of bone, often utilized by sculptors to great effect to reveal texture and add heft to a carving. Also known as cancellous bone or trabecular bone, this very porous material is called spongy bone. The name, however, is misleading in its whimsy. Bone is a fundamentally temperamental, unforgiving and ultimately delicate medium that can vex even the most skilled carver.
One of the carvers most adept at and celebrated for manipulating and coaxing this distinct material is cover artist Karoo Ashevak (1940–1974), whose short and brilliant career is documented in “Challenging Convention: The Expressive World of Karoo Ashevak” by Leslie Boyd. Masterful in his technique and expansive in his distinct visual vocabulary, Ashevak is rightfully remembered as a creative catalyst among his community of Talurjuaq (Taloyoak), NU. As first described in our pages by Marie Routledge and Ingo Hessel (IAQ 5.3), Ashevak’s stylistic influence on other artists has been well documented. Despite the enduring popularity of his work among curators and collectors alike, this is the first full-length profile on Ashevak to be published by the IAQ, and we are delighted to share this thorough look for those familiar with his oeuvre, as well as those encountering his whimsical and distinctive forms for the first time. We also hear from a close friend of the artist, photographer Pamela Harris, whose personal photographic archive of Ashevak’s work and life has remained largely unpublished—until now. Complementing Ashevak’s aesthetic contributions, the fantastical and transformative works of fellow Talurjuaq artists Judas Ullulaq (1937– 1999) and Maudie Okittuq are also featured in this issue.
The rendering of evocative and narrative forms in bone, particularly those capturing intimacy or strangeness, the grotesque and the remarkable, is seen throughout the Features section of this issue. In “Crafted from Bone and Ivory: An Interview with
Susie Silook” we hear from the celebrated Yupik/Iñupiaq sculptor on the power of her tender renderings of female figures as well as the searing political critiques embedded within their sinewy forms. In this issue’s Portfolio, “To the Bone: Spirits, Skulls and Stories,” we explore bone as subject—the substance of both legend and life. And finally, from the shores of Greenland, “Through Water and Ice: The Story of Greenlandic Tupilat” by anthropologist Sheila Romalis draws us into the shadowy realm of these elusive beings, while highlighting those contemporary artists bringing them to light today.
Despite the inherent history of their materiality, works in bone by Inuit artists have come to be synonymous with vitality, imaginativeness and humour—qualities that respond to the requirements of bone itself, in all its intricacy and resoluteness. Simultaneously brittle and resilient, ancient and modern, bone is perfectly inconsistent and wonderfully adaptable, and it offers what I think is a fruitful starting point to our 2018 publishing calendar. I hope you enjoy this issue on bone in its varying, and often contradicting, forms.
Britt Gallpen Editor