tupilakosaurus - Print matters!

gitsut. 1990
tassalu assiliiviup saaniittup tunuaniittullu
akornannut. Taamaattumik Arketulli
pissusiviusimasunik ujartuigaanni tassaavoq
aallaqqaaterpiaaniit avissimanermik
taassuminnga ujartuinissaq. Assiliivik
putuaraannalik taassumalu immikkuullarissumik
pilersitai tassaapput tunngaviusumik
ileqqupalaamik suliarinnikkusunneq
qaangeerusunnerlu; misiliineq
soorunami allamik takutitsisoq: Akuneqarluni,
affarmik eskimuujulluni affarmillu
europamiuulluni, naggueqarnermik suliarinninneq.
Assilineqartoq immikkuullarissoq tassa
Kalaallit Nunaat, maannakkorpiaanngitsoq
toqqaannanngitsumillu, kisiannili
sammisaq imaluunniit assi – soorlu nunasiaataanerup
oqaluttuassartaa, oqaluttuatoqqat,
iluanaarutit, nuannariinnarlugu
eqqaamassutissiat, misissugassatut
saqqummersitassatulluunniit pissarsiat.
Immikkuullarissuseq minnerunngitsumik
erserpoq nunasiaatillit eqqumiitsulianik
aallarussuisimanerannik malinninnissamik
takorluuineq assiliissutip sammivilerneragut
assiliinikkullu, misiliinerit
amerlaqisut akuliussuunnerisigut. Assilissat
erseriartuaartut sinnattutullusooq ittut
takutippaat ingerlaaseq inerneqanngitsoq
immaqalu inerneqanngisaannartussaq,
immikkuullarissutaallu assimi anginerusumiippoq
atortorissaarutit namminneq
atugaasa iluanniilluni. Ilumummi eqqortumik
kusanartuliaassagaluarpoq paasisinnaagaluaraanni
pilersillugulu imminnut
ataqatigiinngissorisinnaasat amerlaqisut
– kusanartulerinerit, inuit ataasiakkaat
politikkillu – imminnut ataqatigiinnerat.
Taakku tamarmik eqqartuussiniarpalaaqaat.
Usi aamma taakkununnga ilaavoq
immikkuullarissusermi paasiniaruminaannerpaaq,
taamaattorli assilissat taakku
ingerlateqqissinnaasaat, tassalu inunnut
qamanilu pigisaannut oqaluttuarneq. Erseqqilluinnarportaaq
taamaaliorneq Arkep
piginnaasaanut ilaasoq, assilisamigummi
eqqarsaatigisimanngisaannarunarpaa
assiliaannaanissaat. Akerlianik paasisitsiniuterpiatut
atorniarpai siunertanut,
saqqummiussanut peqataanernullu nammineq
allallu akunnerminniittunut.
Erik Gant
(allakkiamit “Det Arketypiske/ Pia Arke”
tigusaq, KATALOG, upernaakkut 1996)
Pia Arke. Untitled. 1990
The main idea apparently is to
adapt photographic implements
to human dimensions; to strip
the camera of mechanical and
electronic gadgetry, substituting
that with the human being inside.
And, through negative size and
exposure time (15 min. up to several
hours), to try to get the basic,
one-on-one character of photography
to embrace the photographer
as well. The positive picture, which
the big negative throws back into
the murky chamber, plus the long
exposure time, provide the option
of steering the input of light onto
different regions of the picture. The
photographer can, in the most tangible
sense, put her own fingerprint
or handprint on the picture.
The way I see it, and maybe in
spite of these impressions and
manipulations, this is in high
degree the embodiment of pure
photography; a direct and immediate
contact with the medium which
generates the idea of the pinhole
camera and manifests itself again
in the paper prints. Pia Arke’s most
widely circulated picture, a view of
a South Greenland fjord with its
peculiar rock formations, is a scene
I grew up with, so to speak, on my
retina. More than 20 years have
passed since I last saw that view
from our mutual childhood home.
And when I compare the two pictures,
my own faded retinal image
and my sister’s photograph from
1990, it strikes me that the former
is far sharper, filled with Kodacolorlike
nuances and transitions that
have no equivalence in the latter.
But Arke’s photography also makes
me realize what has been happening
to this place: closed down,
robbed of its dimensions, haunted,
covered with film.
The surprising and beautiful thing
about these pictures springs, I believe,
straight from their character
as prints or impressions, a character
allowed to emerge through
the veil without being forced aside
by an all-too-high degree of sharp
similarity, and without the pictures
posing as indices to truths other
than their own.
Photography from the beginning
has been divided, so to speak,
between what is in front of the
camera and what is behind it.
Therefore, like Arke, when you look
back at the original, it is tantamount
to going back to the original
division. Arke’s camera obscura,
and its Arketypical fruits, are an
attempt to treat and overcome a basic
problem – an attempt at which,
of course, again shows something
else: the acculturation of a mongrel
of half-Eskimo, half-European
origin.
The Arketypical motif is really always
Greenland. Not immediately
or directly, but still the subliminal
subject – as colonial history, myth,
prey, trophy, study or exhibition
object. The Arketypical lies not
least in a dream of emulating the
typical tricks of colonial adaptation
by aiming at objectivity and unbiased
reportage, cross-culturization
and a comprehensive sampling of
reality. The dreamlike quality of
the images that slowly emerge indicates
that we are dealing here with
an unfinished and maybe unfinishable
process, and that the Arketypical
makes up part of a larger
picture, enveloped by the apparatus
used to record that never-never
scene. Whatever, it will be no mean
work of art to expose the connections
between the many apparently
irreconcilable – aesthetic, personal,
political – of the Pia Arke-typing.
All of this is highly process-oriented.
Which, by the way, seems to
be the part of Arketyping that is
toughest to analyze, having to do
with the ability of these pictures
to communicate, to talk to people
or something inside them. This
quite clearly also has something
to do with Arke’s abilities in the
same direction, since her pictures,
as far as I know, were never really
intended to speak for themselves.
On the contrary they are meant to
function as a medium for all manner
of intentions, messages and
engagements in the relationship
between herself and others.
Erik Gant
(excerpt from the article “The
‘Arke’typical/Pia Arke,”
KATALOG, Spring 1996)
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