tupilakosaurus - Print matters!

1993
misigitippaatigut soorlu saqqummersitsiviup
iluaniittugut. Soorlu “nujuartat”
pillugit sarsuatitaliarpassuarnisut, uanili
nujuillisarneqaqqissaakkatut takutinneqarlutik.
Guutiusullu tamanna katersuuffigaat. Ini
pinngortippaat, uagut isiginnaartuusugut
unittariaqalersilluta – takunnillutalu.
Isigikkit eqqarsaatimikkut inissisimaneri
oqariartuutaallu qimerloorlugu.
Eqqumiitsuliaq tunissuteqarpoq tigusillunilu.
Isiginnaartuusugut attuumassuseqartutut
misigitilluta. Susunnimik
tammartikkuminaatsumik naasaqartilerluta.
Eqqumiitsuliap isiginnaartoq
sunniuteqarfigaa, ingerlaqqinnermini
eqqarsaataanut sunniuteqarluni – pissutsillu
pillugit oqariartuuteqalersillugu.
Eqqumiitsuliortup oqariartuutaa tassani
paarlaateqatigiinnermi pinngorpoq,
Arkep eqqumiitsuliaani De tre Gratier
erseqqinnerusinnaagani.
Guutiusut akerleriillutik piviusuliamiipput
eqqumiitsuliornikkut nunanut killernut
nunanullu inuiaassutsimik aallaavilinnut
tikkuussillutik. Eqqumiitsuliaq
isummanut imminut assortuuttunut
ilisarnaatinngorpoq, kalaallit eqqumiitsuliaani
tamanna takussaagajuttarpoq, inuiaassutsimik
aallaaveqarluni eqqumiitsuliaq
nammineq saqqummernermini
inuiaassutsimut ilisarnaatitut eqqumiitsuliatulluimikkoortikkuminaassilluni.
Arkep De tre Gratier aqqutigalugit
imminut isummatigut assortuunnerup
atorunnaarsinnaanera periarfissippaa.
Assigiinngitsutigut akerleriittutut inissisimanermigut
eqqumiitsuliaq kulturimut
aallaavimminut uteqqippoq – anersaamigullu.
Isigisaq nikisinngikkaluarlugu,
eqqarsaatilli angerlamut uterteqqinneqarput,
pissaanerlu nunasiaatilinnit
pigineqarunnaarluni nunasiaasimasunit
pigineqalerluni.
Guutiliat isiginnaartoq aggersarpaat,
aalajangersimasuinnarli tikillugu. Soorlu
igalaamerngup saqqummersitsivimmiittut
takutitap attorneqarnissaannut
assersortarai.
Sara Olsvig
Pia Arke. The Three Graces. 1993
Should one embrace or reject? That’s
what the Graces in Pia Arke’s photo
work The Three Graces seem to be
thinking. Reluctantly they hold objects
that symbolise a special ethnicity
and a special place of belonging. Reluctantly
they let themselves be called
“Graces” – three goddesses that in the
Western art tradition represent such
things as beauty, charm and creativity,
and who were depicted absorbed
in each other’s company and touching
each other affectionately. Arke’s three
Graces stand, in contrast, at a cool
distance from one another, so that
this obvious breach with the tradition
becomes a visible sign of a showdown
with the Western view of ethnic art.
Just as reluctantly they seem to
reveal a recognition that they are
being used here as media for a state.
The state of being between stages
not in a hierarchical sense, but in
an artistic sense. Of being between
the stage where ethnographica are
collected and exhibited as curiosities
from distant regions for some more
or less interested viewer, and the
stage of being themselves – of being
women in a modern world and art in
a modern world at a time and in a
place that are of no account.
The Graces reflect themselves in
themselves, then they turn their
backs and eventually they stare at
us. In so doing they make us – the
viewers – the central factor in the
work. They invite us to understand
their standpoint.
The photographs function as
showcases in themselves. As when
you are visiting an ethnographic
museum looking at messages from
the past filtered through the collector’s
eye. Arke’s photos are clearly
constructed in the same way, as
small needles cut into bone or tooth,
masks from different parts of a
country, variations of pearl collars
and skin trousers are laid out side
by side behind the glass of the
showcase. From this constructed
reality the Graces takes the viewer
towards a place that no longer exists.
The photostat of a Greenland
landscape in the background and
the angle from which the picture
was taken give a sense of being on
a stage. As in one of the scenes in
the innumerable films about “the
savages”, but here domesticated
down to the smallest detail.
The Graces gather around this
place. They create the space in
which we viewers are forced to stop
– and look. Look at them and view
their standpoint and message.
The work gives and it takes. It
gives the viewer a sense of belonging.
A taste in one’s mouth that
cannot immediately be rinsed
away. The work sets its mark
on the viewer, and the viewer
wanders on in her or his world
enriched by this emotion – as a
messenger for a state. The artist’s
message is formed in this
exchange, a relation that could
not be depicted more clearly than
Arke does in The Three Graces.
There is a contradiction in the way
the Graces in their constructed reality
signal links both to Western
art and to traditional ethnic art.
The work becomes a symbol of the
ambivalence that often envelops
modern Greenlandic art, in which
the ethnic expression in some contexts
makes the object something
in between ethnographica and
art. With The Three Graces Arke
succeeds in creating a space where
there is no ambivalence. By being
self-contradictory at a number
of levels the work becomes an
expression of the artist’s repatriation
of art to her own culture – but
at an existential level. Without
the object being moved, it is the
thoughts that are moved home
and the power relation changes
from having belonged to the colonial
power to now belonging to the
person who was colonised.
Quietly the Graces allow the
viewer to approach, but only to a
certain point. As when the glass
naturally rejects the touching of
the objects in a showcase.
Sara Olsvig
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