EXIBITION

Arctic StoryWords: Weaving Different Ways of Knowing through Arts, Science, Local and Indigenous Knowledge

PARTICIPANTS

On March 5, 2024, participants and leaders of ArtSLInK projects Stas Ksenofontov, Robert Orttung, Andrey Petrov, Vera Kuklina and Beili Liu opened the exhibition

On 6 March, Vera Kuklina and Beili Liu, co-leaders of ArtSLInK, together with Inupiaq artist Jenny Irene Miller spoke at the “Plenary Panel Diverse Ways of Knowing: Linking Science, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Arts”. The panel was organized and moderated by James Temte. Panelists discussed their roles in gathering and sharing knowledge through their respective crafts and the value of including diverse approaches when navigating complex questions and issues.

Video Installation

Arctic Fusion: Tales From the Frozen Lands

LUSUUD by Aryuna Bulutova in collaboration with Timur Zolotoev

In Buryat Shamanic tradition, ritual offerings connect with the Upper and Lower worlds. Lusuud, a complex ceremony, honors Lusud-Khan, the water deity in the Lower World. The ritual involves crafting an installation symbolizing the underwater realm with dough figures, candles, willow branches, and elements representing nine natural forces. Sweet offerings, white coins, black stones (earth and underwater realm), and colorful ribbons symbolize universal energies. A red thread ties these elements, culminating in immersion in water. The video transforms this ritual into the digital realm, featuring a melting body of frozen earth and water. A red thread envelops the mass, transcending different realms and illustrating the interconnectedness of all beings. Sound design by Buryat-Mongolian sound artist ERHYME

The Underground Sound Project: Arctic Portals by Nikki Lindt 

in collaboration with Arctic ecologists Jason Dobkowski and Friederike Gehrmann
This soundscape project explores the subterranean sonic ecosystem recorded by Nikki Lindt in the Arctic Circle. The recordings document the audible manifestations of thawing permafrost beneath the surface revealing a world of sound not normally accessed. Lindt’s project explores this acoustic realm both as a medium through which scientific data can be communicated to a broader audience and as an artistic expression, thus revealing the subsurface rhythms and sounds produced by thawing permafrost and the gasses it releases. In the recordings, one can discern the nuanced layers of the Arctic soundscape, revealing a symphony of elements that extends far beyond mere noise.

Arctic Mending/Snow Mandala by Beili Liu

The Arctic is a place that amplifies the sorrows and hopes of our shared planet. Liu’s work examines environmental issues and geopolitical changes by exploring handcraft, labor, and the real-life experiences of Arctic Indigenous communities. Liu intertwines human activities, the rapidly advancing climate crisis, and humanity’s quest for hope and healing through on-site performances conducted within the fragile Arctic landscape.

Arctic Stories: Time Tells by Nikki Lindt in collaboration with permafrost scientists Kelsey Nyland, and Nickolai Shiklomanov

Through sound and video, Arctic Stories: Time Tells explores and intertwines paths and roads in two arctic towns- Yellowknife, Canada, and Fairbanks, Alaska. These roads have been intensely affected by the thawing of the permafrost beneath them. These impacts of a dramatically changing Arctic can also be reflected in the broader ecosystem. In Arctic Stories: Time Tells, the recorded acoustics caused by driving on these devastated and collapsed roads are as prominent and experienced by the viewer as the video footage revealing these changes.

IndiUrban: Indigenizing Urban Spaces in the Arctic by Diana Khudaeva, Sardaana Barabanova, and Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov

Arctic cities for a long time have been disturbing northern environments and humans as colonial constructs, faceless and monotonous. However, as Indigenous Peoples regain relations with land and rebuild ethnic identities, cities also become places of change. Indigenization of urban space entails embedding traditional symbols, architecture, monuments, and other cultural elements into the urban space. This deliberate infusion of Indigenous identity into the cityscape serves as a powerful means of reconnecting Indigenous urbanites with their roots, fostering a sense of belonging, and reclaiming cultural narratives that were once suppressed by colonial forces. The project is documenting a profound shift towards Indigenization, marking a revival of cultural heritage in their native city, the capital of Sakha Republic – Yakutsk.

Edaxàdats’eetè (We save ourselves) by Sadetło Scott