tupilakosaurus - Print matters!

putuinnalimmik assilisat.
1988-
galluni assilisatoqqani isiginnaarpaa.
Kamillaangarpasippoq, kisiannili arnat
kalaallisuuisa kamisaat nasaliussimavaa!
Assi killornerullugu aviisimi Sermitsiami
(nr. 5, 1994) naqinneqarpoq, assillu allagartaa
aallartippoq: “Kamik nasaliuguk,
taava tamarmik takusinnaassavaat
suminngaanneersuunersutit.” Tassa Arkep
sunniutilimmik takutitsiniutaa Kalaallit
Nunaanni aviisit annersaanni eqqumiitsuliornermik
politikkip oqallisigineqarnerani
eqqarsaatissiisumik akuliunnermigut,
qisuariarfigisaami tassaavoq kalaallit
eqqumiitsuliaasa itsarnitsanut akuliullugit
saqqummersinneqartarnerat. Kalaallit
eqqumiitsuliortut ataasiakkaat namminneerlutik
kingoqqiffitik isummerfigisariaqarpaat.
Kamimmik nasaqartoqarneq
ajorpoq, Arkellumi isummernini takutissimasinnaagaluarpaa
soorlu kalaallisoornermigut,
kisianni taava taama uumisaarutaasimatiginavianngikkaluarpoq.
Assiliivittaaq putuinnalik atorlugu
Nuugaarsummi assilisami tassuma
assiliarujussuanngortinnera tunuliaqutaraa
assilissanut arlalinnut nammineq
arnallu inuusuttut allat, namminermisulli
Tunumi inunngorsimasut, Danmarkimilu
maanna najugaqartut, ilagalugit. Assit
ilagaat arnat pingasut qerattaffaarillutik
annoqalutillu tallitik ammut tikkortillugit
assilisissimasut. Soorluuna tigummiaminnit
avissaarusuppasissut, ingerlaannarlu
Kalaallit Nunaannik eqqaasitsillutik:
qilaammik katuamillu, kiinarpammik
inuusamillu kalaallisoortumik. Assi suliat
sisamat De tre Gratier-imiittut (1993)
ilagaat, kisiannili arnanik kusanartunik
qitittunik takorluuisarnermit allaaqaaq.
Arnat nutaaliat timiminnik ilusiliinerat
kalaallillu sanaavinik tigummiariaasiisa
ersersinngilaat siuaasat kulturiannut
qamanngavik attaveqarneq, taamaattorli
Arkep suliaasa tamarmik pisarnerattut
qanoq paasineqarsinnaanerat ammavoq.
Inge Kleivan
Pia Arke.
The camera obscura photographs. 1988-
In 1988, the year after Pia Arke had
started at the School of Painting at
the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts in Copenhagen, she began to
experiment with pinhole cameras.
The special thing about the pinhole
camera is that it does not have a
lens, but instead a very small hole,
which is covered until the picture is
to be taken. When the light pours
in through the hole, it hits a film on
the opposite side of the camera.
In 1990, after having tried out the
technique in Denmark, Arke had her
big pinhole camera sent by ship to
Narsaq. Like some of the old users
of the camera obscura technique,
she chose to use a box that was large
enough for her to be inside it. It
was made of plywood and laths and
had a floor area of 165 cm x 140 cm
and a height of 170 cm. The light
entered through a 1.43 mm hole bored
through a thin metal plate on one
wall, while the film on the opposite
wall was a 6 ASA black-and-white
lithfil 50 cm x 60 cm. From Narsaq
she had the camera brought to Nuugaarsuk
close to where she had lived
for some years in her childhood. The
house had been pulled down, but Arke
had her camera set up so that it could
catch the view that the family had
once had: mountains, water and ice.
The outcome was beautiful, slightly
blurred landscape photos. When
she sat inside the box, she could
watch the picture forming, and it
was also possible for her to shadow
it with her body, so that less light
fell on the film. The exposure time
was from 15 min. and upwards,
and because of the size of the film
it had to be developed in a big tub,
which made it difficult to control the
process. Arke said later of her “mistakes”
that the 25 years that had
passed since then “were in a way
registered in the picture” (Weekendavisen,
April 29 – May 6, 1999).
In 1993 Pia Arke went a step further
by having one of her Greenland
pinhole photos form part of new
photographs containing a strong
element of contrast. In one of them
Arke herself is sitting with her back
to the camera and looking at the
old photo. She doesn’t seem to have
anything on her feet, but to make
up for that she has a long, decorated
woman’s kamik on her head! In a
cut form the picture was printed in
the bilingual weekly Sermitsiaq (no.
5, 1994), where the caption began
with the words: “Put your kamik
on your head, so everyone can see
where you come from.” It was an
effective eye-catcher for Arke’s
thought-provoking contribution to
the art-political debate in Greenland’s
biggest newspaper; her reaction
to the fact that Greenlandic art
was being exhibited together with
ethnographical objects. It was up
to the individual Greenlandic artist
to relate to her or his roots. Nobody
walks around with a kamik on their
head, and Arke could also have
communicated her message by, for
instance, being clad in the Greenlandic
national costume, but that
would not have had an immediately
provocative effect.
Arke also used the same big
photostat of the pinhole photo from
Nuugaarsuk as the background for
a series of photos of herself together
with two other young women, who
like herself had been born in
East Greenland and now lived in
Denmark. On one of the photos the
three women are standing, stiff
and deadly serious, with their arms
stretched down along their sides.
It seems that they wish to distance
themselves from what they have in
their hands, objects that one immediately
associates with Greenland: a
drum, a drumstick, a wooden mask
and a doll in the costume worn by
Greenlandic women at celebrations.
The photo is one of four in the work
The Three Graces (1993), but it is far
from representing three gracefully
dancing women. The modern body
language and the way in which the
women are holding the Greenlandic
objects does not indicate a living
connection with the culture of the
past, although, like all Arke’s works,
this one too is open to interpretation.
Inge Kleivan
17