ARCTICNOISE
Geronimo Inutiq
November 6 to December 5, 2015
Opening Reception November 6, 8pm
Curated by Britt Gallpen and Yasmin Nurming-Por
Workshop with Geronimo Inutiq November 7, 2015. Supported by Paved Arts Production Centre. To register contact technical@pavedarts.ca
ARCTICNOISE is an immersive, audio and visual media installation by Geronimo Inutiq (madeskimo). Following a series of discussions in Montreal and Toronto, Inutiq and co-curators Britt Gallpen and Yasmin Nurming-Por began a process of collective research into the relationships among Glenn Gould’s representations and more contemporaneous representations of the North, as well as the role of technology in disseminating these identity-based constructions. This early research led to the identification of the Igloolik Isuma Archive at the National Gallery of Canada as the ideal research site for the project, chosen for the breadth and variety of its holdings in cinema and television.
Through the appropriation of Gould’s composition “The Idea of North” as a musical score, collaged with new and found voices and imagery, Inutiq responds with media installation as a specific strategy to foster a multi-vocal and multi-generational approach. Inutiq’s practice as madeskimo, an electronic artist, music producer & dj draws on the use of instruments, digital and analog synthesizers, as well as the remixing and processing of samples from a large variety of sources—including traditional Inuit, Aboriginal, and modern electronic, and urban music—in order to create an experimental platform.
At its crux, ARCTICNOISE intends to initiate conversations between various communities, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and to provoke thoughtful exchange about the roles of Inuit orality and materiality in a post-colonial space within the context of media artwork.
A curatorial essay written by Yasmin Nurming-Por and Britt Gallpen is available here.
Glenn Gould and The Idea of North
After permanently retiring from concert performing in 1964, prolific and celebrated pianist, composer and each of the five speakers [James Lotz, Frank Valee, Marianne Schroeder, Robert Phillips, and Wally Maclean] much in the same way that Arnold Schoenberg employed sprechstimme (spoken song) in his Pierrot Lunaire (1912), Gould was literally “orchestrating the voices,”
“In fact, when the program was first aired, it was logged as crosstalk and there was much criticism over the fact that voices were sounding simultaneously. “ – Peter Shewchuk
Igloolik Isuma Productions
Although Igloolik Isuma Productions is primarily known for the critical acclaim earned by Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (1999), the first Aboriginal-language Canadian feature movie and winner of the Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature Film at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival, the breadth and depth of their archive spans “re-lived” drama, documentary, television series and other feature length films including The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2005) and Before Tomorrow (2009).
At the heart of Isuma is a desire to “to produce independent community-based media to preserve and enhance Inuit culture and language; to create jobs and economic development in Igloolik and Nunavut; and to tell authentic Inuit stories to Inuit and non-Inuit audiences worldwide.” In large part, the success of Isuma has been driven by the artistic and social vision of Zacharias Kunuk who has worked tirelessly to tell the stories of his community and to support the creation of others by advocating that Inuit artists have access to the most contemporary production equipment available.
The current iteration of isuma.tv as an online international video distribution force for Inuit and Indigenous cultures worldwide is the result of much effort and an ambitious resolve to preserve and protect an original and rare point of view on a culture facing drastic and important changes in their day-to-day culture. Transitioning from a video based production platform to a successful online media distribution channel, the infrastructure surrounding production and distribution of original content at Isuma has seen many challenges and changes. The resolve to be producers and distributors of culturally sensitive content has made Isuma a modern-day powerhouse in the fields of arts, culture, and entertainment.
Geronimo Inutiq considers himself amongst other things a self-taught and independent electronic & electroacoustic musician, and multi-media artist. Having been exposed to strong traditional Inuit cultural elements in his youth, as well as the exciting worlds of modern art, and broadcast & media through close members of his kin, he has been able to weave those reference points into his practice in innovative and crafty ways – allowing him to create on his own accord original works, and enter in contract with a wide variety of clients and partners seeking cultural content. Guided by the notion that creative personal expression is a very subjective and individual experience, he is interested in the dialogue that emerges between that individual and increasingly large and complex inter-related circles of socially constructed systems of meaning.
Britt Gallpen is a writer and curator based in Toronto, Canada. She is currently the Project Coordinator on Sakkijâjuk, the first major nationally touring exhibition of fine art from Nunatsiavut and co-curator of iNuit Blanche, an all-night, city-wide circumpolar art project scheduled for 2016. Britt is completing an M.A. in Art History and Curatorial Studies from York University, specializing in contemporary Canadian art. Her research considers the shifting landscape of Canadian practice alongside the legacies of iconic Canadian makers. Recent curatorial projects include: Titigi (Toronto) and ARCTICNOISE (Vancouver). Her writing has appeared in Canadian Art, esse art + opinions and KAPSULA among others.
Yasmin Nurming-Por is an independent curator currently based in Toronto, where she completed her M.A. in Art History at the University of Toronto in 2013. She currently teaches at Humber College in Toronto. Her research has focused on transatlantic relationships between Eastern Europe and Latin America. Yasmin is invested in examining the potential for ephemeral and art-based work to provoke, intervene in, and engage with discourse around the idea of community. Yasmin has held research and programming positions at various Canadian and International artist-run centres and galleries, and was a recipient of the Robert and Jacqueline White Graduate Scholarship.
This project is made possible through funding by Mobilizing Inuit Cultural Heritage and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. AKA artist-run is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskLotteries and SaskCulture. A full list of our funders and partners.
