tupilakosaurus - Print matters!

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