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taaneqartartoq Perlustrationer
1-10. 1994
kræftip navianartorsiortitsineranik eqqorpaatigut.
Pulaartoq pinngitsaalisatut kræftimik eqqorneqarsimasumut
qiviartariaqarpoq, eqqissinissaminulli
ikiorserneqarluni qissiminnermit oqaluttuartumillusooq
arnaassutsip ilivitsuusup, tamarmiusup,
uteqqinnissaanik takorluuinermut. Malugineqarsinnaavoq
ikeq ikillu maminnissaa nakorsat
paaseriigaasa illuatungerluinnaaniittoq, soorlu
immaqa kulturit marluk akornanniilersimasup
misigisamigut kingunerlutsitsilersumut assersuunneqarsinnaasoq.
Kisianni Arkep isiginnitsini
taama ajornanngitsigisumik misigitikkusunngilai.
Assilissat arfineq pingasut taakku akornanniippoq
saqqummersitami assilissat paasiuminaannersaat,
inuup assilineqarusunngitsutut ittup assinga, sequnnginganermigulli
takutitsisoq kinaassutsiminik
illuatungiliisutut, nittarsaatin-ngitsoq, eqqarsarpasissoq
nappaateqarneranillu malunnaateqanngitsoq.
Ataqqinarpaluttumik eqqissisimalluni,
takorluukkamini taartuniilluni, kiinaa assilissatut
saqqummeriartorpoq, pingaa-ruteqarpaluttutut,
kalaallit kiinarpaliaattuulli pingaaruteqarpalutsigaluni,
Inuillu nagguippiaanniippalulluni,
qaqugumulluunniit atasussamik eqqortuusumik
uppernarsaatitut naalakkersuisut mitallikujussinnaasunik
silatusaarniarnerisa qeqqanni ataqatigiissitsiniartutut.
Tamanna saqqummersitani immaqa qajassuaassinnaasumik
nassuiaaneq eqqumiitsuliortup
nammineerluni nassuiaaserpaa qulequttat marluk
ataqatigiissinnerisigut. Qulequttamik Nature
Morte (oqaatsip nagguia malillugu isumaqartumik
“pinngortitaq toqungasoq”) atuinermigut
nassuiaannanngilaa tassaaginnangitsut aalasortaqanngitsumik
assilisat, ersersilluguttaarli
toqoriaatsit marluk periaannaasut: Piviusoq
tunniutarlu, tassalu suli inuutilluni aanaveersagaaneq,
eksimuujusuusaarneq kalaaliulluniluunniit
allamiunngortitaaneq. Illuatungaani Perlustrationer-ini
Arkep nunasiaataaqqaarnermiit
pissutsit ingerlateqqippai, oqaatigilluaannarlugu
Hans Egedep ilisimalikkaminik atuakkiaa 1741mi
saqqummersoq qulequtaqarluni Det gamle
Grønlands nye Perlustration eller Naturel-Historie.
Takornartat oqaasiinik ordbogip, Meyerip
qanga saqqummersitaata, takutippaa oqaatsit
atorneqartut toqqaannarlugu nutserneqassasut
“Misissuineq, katersuineq”. Taamaattoq
oqaatsinik paasinnittaaseq paasiniarluariaraanni
oqaaseq “perlustrere” nutserneqarsinnaalerportaaq
“oqallisiginninneq”. Sulilu tarparnerusarpoq
oqaatsit nagguiinik nalusut “paasisitsiniaallutik”
oqaatsip nutserneqarnissaatut siunnersuutigigaangassuk
“qinngorneqalersippaa, nersorpaa”.
Oqaatsit nagguiinik isumaannillu qanorlu
aamma isumaqartinneqarsinnaanerinik, uani
taasannik, Arkep atuiniarsimasinnaanera
ilisimasinnaanngilarput. Kisianni arlariinnik
qulequtsiilluni suliaqarsimanera kissaatigisamut
tulluuppoq, isornartorsiuisinnaanerata eqqumiitsuliortutullu
suliaasa taanna qularutissartaarutitikkunarpaat.
Suliaasa kingulliit tamanna suli
sakkortunerusumik uppernarsarpaat.
Finn Thrane
Pia Arke. Nature Morte alias Perlustrations 1-10. 1994
Anyone who in 1994 was confronted
for the first time and without any
kind of preparation with Pia Arke’s
series of black-and-white photos
received no help either from the
photographer or from the titles that
the artist was juggling with: Nature
Morte or Perlustrations. But with
them the series expands and plays
teasingly with their meanings. Like a
decisively cut film it jumps ruthlessly
between the private and the official,
between light and dark, between present
and past and between fiction and
documentation. Through these apparently
incompatible components and
narrative modes the work places itself
promisingly, for as an artist Arke
never became easy to deal with. Like
the rest of her oeuvre the series is a
fearless settlement of accounts with
the picture of Greenland she brought
with her from her childhood in the big
Arctic country and not least with the
interpretations of that country and its
population that she encountered as an
adult when looking for information on
the near or distant Greenlandic past
in public libraries or scientific reports.
In a close reading of the series it becomes
possible to distinguish between
narrative time and narrated time.
Thus we are placed by the author in
narrative time when Arke opens the
series with the right hand’s gesture
of welcome and in the concluding
picture rounds it off with the left
hand’s signal that the framework has
been closed again. In the intervening
eight pictures we explore the narrated
time’s various niches; first through
a meeting with the toy dog that suggests
the unconscious innocence of
childhood, later through the meeting
with old texts in leather bindings that
among other things bear the name
of the 18th century preacher Hans
Egede and later again through the
stylised illustration and the attached
instruments that anticipate the
metrological rules of science and the
ethnologist’s reductive methods of
investigation. But while these motifs
are present as museal objects to be
studied (the dog and the books are
placed between book ends, ready to be
labelled and viewed from a distance),
the remaining pictures take us on a
visit in a women’s world that allegedly
borders on the narrative time of
the work and from this position delivers
the series’ passionate existential
counterpoint.
In a clinical white light the threat of
cancer meets us head on. The viewer
is forced to exchange glances with
the cancer sufferer but is helped to
find repose by the discreet glimpse
of the prosthesis that can bring back
the illusion of intact femininity.
One senses that the wound and its
healing are founded on perspectives
that go beyond the medical diagnosis,
perhaps as a metaphor for the trauma
that afflicts those who stand between
two cultures. But Arke does not let
her viewer off so lightly. Among the
eight pictures of the series there remains
its most enigmatic image – the
portrait that refuses to be a portrait,
but with its closed eyes becomes
the author’s alter ego, introverted,
thoughtful and without visible signs
of illness. Serenely calm, resting in
the darkness of the dream, the face
grows into a picture, loaded with
meaning like a Greenlandic mask and
Inuit archetype, a timeless witness to
the truth and a mediator between the
other soberly ironic statements.
This possibly rather heavy-handed
interpretation of the series feeds on
commentaries from the artist herself
via the dialogue between the two
titles she has used. By Nature Morte
(which literally means “dead nature”)
she comments not only on the still
lifes used by the series, but also links
up to the two forms of death lying in
wait: both death as such and death
in a metaphorical sense, namely
becoming embalmed while still alive,
becoming an Eskimoic prosthesis
or alienated Greenlander. With the
alternative title Perlustrations Arke
establishes a link with the early
colonial days, with Hans Egede’s
account of his explorations published
in 1741 under the title Det gamle
Grønlands nye Perlustration eller
Naturel-Historie [The Old Greenland’s
New Perlustration or Natural
History]. Meyer’s old dictionary of
loan words gives the strict translation
of perlustration: “Review, inspection”.
The English verb form, “perlustrate”,
means to travel though an area,
while if we drop the prefix, the Latin
“lustrate” has the figurative meaning
of “to illuminate”.
We cannot know whether Arke played
with etymology and connotations
along these lines. But it can scarcely
be doubted that the two titles she
worked with were intended to create a
fusion of the critical and artistic fields
in which she worked. Her later production
provides strong proof of this.
Finn Thrane
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