tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
tupilakosaurus - Print matters!
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1995-2003<br />
reersut illoqarfimmut 1997-imi uterami<br />
paasivaa tassani najugallit oqaluttuaqanngitsut.<br />
Najugaqarfiup oqaluttuassartaata<br />
innuttaasut ataatsimut<br />
eqqaamasassissimanngilai. Inooqatigiittaaq<br />
ukiut taakku ingerlanerini<br />
oqaluttuarisaanermut uppernarsaatissaqanngillat.<br />
Arke aalajangerpoq oqaluttuarisaanermik<br />
amigaateqarneq taanna<br />
qanoq iliuuseqarfiginiarlugu. Ittoqqortoormiit<br />
pillugit paasissutissat, Europap<br />
affaani siammarsimasut, katersorpai.<br />
Innuttaasalumi namminneq eqqaamasamikkut<br />
assiisivitsigullu toqqortigaat<br />
atorlugit oqaluttuat uppernarsaaserpai.<br />
Taamaaliornermigut Ittoqqortoormiit<br />
oqaluttuassartaat naqqaniit pilerseqqinniarpaa,<br />
eqqaamasarpassuit, danskit<br />
nunasiaateqarnerminnik pisortatigoortumik<br />
oqaluttuaanni, mininneqarsimasut.<br />
Pisortatigoortumik oqaluttuamit allaanerulluni<br />
oqaluttuat, assit eqqaamasallu<br />
assigiinngisitaaqisut, Arkep katersugai,<br />
aalajangersimasumik malitaqanngillat.<br />
Oqaluttuamut imminut ataqatigiissumut<br />
inissititerneqarsinnaanngillat,<br />
oqaluttuaallutilli assilissatut imminnut<br />
katitikkat, paarlagaattut, nuersagassatulli.<br />
Arkep Dummy-mik taama pingaartitsitiginerata<br />
eqqumiitsuliatullu<br />
nammineq nalilittut qaffatsitsinerata<br />
ersersippaa ilusiliineq naammassineqanngitsoq<br />
paasigamiuk tassatuaasoq<br />
Ittoqqortoormiit oqaluttuassartaata<br />
naammassineqanngitsup eqqortumik<br />
saqqummiunnissaatut. Taamaalilluni<br />
Dummy Arkep oqaluttuarisaanermut<br />
isiginnittaasiata tunngaviinik<br />
pingasunik tikkuussivoq: Siullermik<br />
Ittoqqortoormiit oqaluttuassartaat<br />
ataasiinnaanngitsoq, amerlaqisulli.<br />
Aappassaanik oqaluttuaq taanna nunasiaatillit<br />
namminnerpiaq ilusiliineraat;<br />
Sumiiffik Københavnimi allaffimmi<br />
eqqarsaatigineqarlunilu sananeqartoq.<br />
Pingajussaanik oqaluttuaq taanna suli<br />
naammassineqanngilaq. Dummy assigalugu<br />
isikkuissani suli tigunngilaa –<br />
taamaalinngisaannarunarlunilumi.<br />
Stefan Jonsson<br />
Pia Arke. Dummy. 1995-2003<br />
The title of Pia Arke’s work<br />
Dummy should be read literally.<br />
The work consists of a “dummy”<br />
– that is a mock-up page that<br />
shows the sequence of the pages<br />
and the placing of pictures and<br />
text on each page spread. The<br />
framed mock-up pages hung<br />
on the wall give a momentary<br />
picture of how Arke set about her<br />
work when she assembled her<br />
collected stories, pictures and<br />
documents from Scoresbysund/<br />
Ittoqqortoormiit for her book<br />
Stories from Scoresbysund. Photographs,<br />
Colonisation and Mapping<br />
(Borgen Publishers, 2003).<br />
The dummy we see on the wall is<br />
for its part just the next but last<br />
in a series of similar dummies<br />
that Arke used as basis for her<br />
work when she was planning<br />
her book and discussing it with<br />
her collaborator Stefan Jonsson<br />
and her publisher Poul Henrik<br />
Westh.<br />
Dummy shows that Arke<br />
regarded Stories from Scoresbysund<br />
as an artwork as well as a<br />
book project – although perhaps<br />
most preferably as a new aesthetic<br />
object without a name. A<br />
writer would scarcely exhibit the<br />
manuscript for her/his completed<br />
book. Among artists, on the other<br />
hand, it is common for studies<br />
and sketches to be valued as<br />
works in their own right.<br />
And, furthermore, like a number<br />
of other works by Arke, Dummy<br />
shows that she is one of those<br />
artists who give more emphasis<br />
to the process than to the result.<br />
Arke had barely completed<br />
the manuscript of Stories from<br />
Scoresbysund and delivered it to<br />
the printer when she returned to<br />
the dummy, separated the pages<br />
and began to consider whether it<br />
would not be possible to arrange<br />
the documents in new combinations.<br />
In this way Dummy also comes<br />
to reflect Arke’s entire attitude<br />
to her birthplace, Scoresbysund.<br />
When after 35 years of absence<br />
she returned to the town in<br />
1997, she found that its inhabitants<br />
lacked a history. The<br />
settlement’s past had no given<br />
place in their collective memory.<br />
Furthermore the community<br />
lacked historical documents that<br />
could account for the years that<br />
had passed. Arke set herself the<br />
task of remedying this situation.<br />
She collected documents about<br />
Scoresbysund that had been<br />
spread across half of Europe. She<br />
also documented the stories that<br />
the inhabitants themselves had<br />
stored away in their memories<br />
and photo albums. In this way<br />
she wanted to re-establish Ittoqqortoormiit’s<br />
history from<br />
below by presenting the throng of<br />
memories and recollections that<br />
had been left out of official Danish<br />
colonial history writing.<br />
As opposed to the official version<br />
of history the multiplicity<br />
of stories, photographs and<br />
memories collected by Arke had<br />
no definite line. They could not<br />
be put together into a coherent<br />
narrative, but only as a mosaic<br />
of intertwined stories like a ball<br />
of yarn. That Arke attached so<br />
much importance to the dummy<br />
and elevated it to a work of art in<br />
its own right shows that she saw<br />
the unfinished form as the only<br />
kind that could present the truth<br />
about Ittoqqortoormiit’s uncompleted<br />
and unfinished history.<br />
In this way Dummy highlights<br />
three fundamental ideas in<br />
Arke’s view of history. First,<br />
Scoresbysund does not have one<br />
history, but many. Second, this<br />
history is quite literally about<br />
a colonial construction; a place<br />
that was conceived and fabricated<br />
at a desk in Copenhagen.<br />
Third, the history is unfinished.<br />
Like the dummy it has not<br />
acquired its final form – and<br />
probably never will.<br />
Stefan Jonsson<br />
41