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Noah Echalook
2009
Inukjuak Co-operative, Inukjuak, Quebec, Canada

Credits:
Photo: Devora Cascante

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Noah Echalook [b. 1946]

"I'd like to see the carving business rejuvenated, especially in Inukjuak, because that's the occupation of most people here." (interview with Inuit Art Foundation staff in Inukjuak in 2009).

His story
Noah Echalook was born in 1946, in an outpost camp on Elsie Island, north of Inukjuak in Nunavik. Many members of his extended family are artists. Noah took up stone carving in his early teens at the prompting of his uncle, well known carver Lucassie Echalook. Several other uncles also contributed to his artistic development, although he credits one, Thomas Noah Moses Echalook, as having been his chief instructor. In the early 1970s, while still a fledgling artist, Noah experimented with printmaking, but he always returned to carving. In 1967, he spent two months in Montreal demonstrating carving at Expo 67. By the late 1970s, his sculpture was featured regularly in commercial exhibitions.

His art
Noah Echalook's carvings are sometimes described as "super-realism." He distorts and amplifies the figures and facial expressions of his subjects, while maintaining a fastidious attention to detail. The resulting characters are both expressive and dramatic, infused with a sense of energy and movement, even while performing rather mundane activities. Inlaid eyes and teeth are made from ivory, and fine details - such as parka trim or a woman's braid - are deftly articulated, adding a realistic dimension to his elaborate sculpture. While animals have been a recurrent motif in his sculpture, his more recent work has tended towards depictions of women engaged in domestic activities. He explains that his inspiration comes from his subconscious. "In my dreams, before I go to sleep, it comes to me" (Sinclair 2004:81). Legends also feature in his carvings. One, simply entitled A Legend, shows a woman pulling on a noose looped around a bird's head. "A vulture tried every way he could think of to get an Eskimo wife for himself, but without success. The woman also tried different ways to kill him. This is one of the ways," he explained (Fox 1997:11).

His achievements
In 1979, Noah Echalook had his first solo exhibition at the Raven Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was followed in 1983 by a larger exhibition at the Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art in Toronto. His work has been included in exhibitions organized by the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, the Musée du Québec and the Musée des Beaux-Arts. His work is found in the permanent collections of a number of other institutions, including the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art (Fort Worth), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.

References
Fox, Matthew
1997 "Curator's Choice: Noah Echalook and Simeonie Elijassiapik," Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ), vol. 12, no. 4 (winter):10-15

Sinclair, James
2004 "Noah Echalook: A Super-Real Carver," Inuit Art Quarterly (IAQ), vol. 19, no. 3&4 (fall/winter):81