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 

Sadetło Scott is an emerging Tlicho filmmaker and actress from Yellowknife, Canada. For many Indigenous communities strengthening their languages is the way to reconnect with their ancestral lands and cultures. Knowledge accumulated in the language can become crucial in the wake of climate change. In 2023, the author became its immediate witness: that summer, an unprecedented wildfire spread over 4 million hectares forced all residents of their city and 7 other communities to evacuate.  

Art Installation

Khaar kyyrpagha / Snowflake 

by Mariana Marakhovskaia, Stanislav Saas Ksenofontov, and Andrey Petrov

Arctic Indigenous communities live in harmony with nature’s cryogenic gifts—ice, snow, and permafrost, also known as frozen matter. Within this realm, an artistic journey unfurls, tracing the myriad roles these frozen wonders play in the tapestry of life: nourishing sustenance, cradling tradition, storing stories, sculpting pathways, and erecting shelter. The concept for this project originated from a scholarly exploration of terminology related to different manifestations of Frozen Commons found in the languages of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic region. The shift from a conventional vocabulary format to a more dynamic ‘words cloud’ representation was conceptualized as a snowflake, inspired by the artist’s imagination. In this piece, a scholarly examination of snow and its diverse forms and significance in the Arctic is seamlessly integrated with in-depth linguistic analyses. The work is further enriched by incorporating elements of the traditional Sakha ornamentation, thereby revealing cultural traditions that extend far into the depths of time.

Snow Shadows: Svalbard

by Beili Liu

Snow Shadows: Svalbard is a wall-based installation consisting of 70 cyanotype prints created using snow during Beili Liu’s research on Svalbard as the 2021-2022 Fulbright Arctic Chair. Liu is a visual artist whose site-responsive installations and performances are rooted in the essence and history of a place and negotiate personal, cultural, and environmental concerns. Liu’s current research, Dreams of the High North: Between Survival and Belonging, focuses on the complex ecological, political, and environmental concerns facing the Circumpolar North and the urgency of the climate crisis. The installation is a poetic contemplation of a unique geographical location, Svalbard–the northernmost inhabited place on earth. By working with the seemingly abundant substance in the Arctic, snow, the artwork speaks to the accelerating changes in the Arctic environment and its fragility.

Ice Roads

by Mariia Kuklina,Vera Kuklina, Nataliia Krasnoshtanova, and Dmitrii Kobylkin

For many Arctic and remote communities winter is celebrated as the season when surrounding areas become more accessible. Be it in Siberia, Mongolia, or Alaska, everywhere we can witness snow and ice turning into possible road pathways. As climate change brings large uncertainties into and mostly decreases the length of the winter road operational season, the role of snow and ice as important infrastructure for human mobility in cold regions is more evident than ever.

In the vast northern expanses, summer voyages to certain areas can only be undertaken by helicopter. However, most remote villages are no longer isolated as winter sets in. During winter, roads emerge across frozen ground, snow, and icy river and lake channels. Aptly named ‘snow roads’ or ‘ice roads,’ these frozen pathways play a crucial role in shortening distances, making vast territories more accessible. The Indigenous and local people have utilized these ice roads for centuries. Only at first glance, from a distance, does the ice appear as smooth as a mirror. In practice, traveling straight across the ice is often impossible due to winding cracks, hummocky fields, and snowdrifts. Another characteristic of ice roads is the presence of densely packed snowdrifts, on which the vehicle jumps like on a trampoline. When overcoming frozen cracks and snow-covered hummocks, the vehicle suspension often experiences strong impacts. Local people and fishermen have long mastered the icy expanses for moving around in cars. Nevertheless, drivers must possess extensive experience and knowledge of ice conditions to ensure the safety of the cars, goods, and passengers.

The photos were taken during different trips: to the Mongolian village Tsagaannuur Soum over the icy terrain of Lake Khuvsgul in late March 2023, and to the villages of McGrath and Nikolai in Alaska in January 2024.

Frozen Fluidity

by Pauline Mnev

Frozen Fluidity is an art-based research project that Pauline Mnev is working on. It explores two cold regions (McGrath, Alaska, and Bayanzurkh, Mongolia) by juxtaposing satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs), and art to reveal the intricate balance between data-driven analysis and human perception. By combining remote sensing, image processing, and artistic expression, the installation contributes to a better understanding of environmental intricacies and multidimensional facets inherent to these remote landscapes. The project unfolds in a systematic progression. Commencing with a remote vantage point facilitated by SPOT satellite imagery, the analysis then proceeds to present Digital Elevation Models for both regions. This phase illuminates the computational interpretation of imagery by elucidating the extraction of information and the concurrent abstraction of the landscape. The distinction in resolutions between Alaskan and Mongolian DEMs highlights a discrepancy in data availability, prompting reflection on the inadequacy of data alone in comprehending the entirety of a landscape. The final phase of the installation introduces fluid art representations of the landscapes. In this segment, colors harmoniously merge and traverse across canvases, effectuating a transformative process that transcends raw data into abstracted landscapes. This artistic metamorphosis underscores the overarching narrative of harmonizing scientific analysis with interpretative artistic expressions. 

MӨР

by Vera Kuklina, Khadbaatar Sandag, Kelsey Nyland, Dmitrii Kobylkin, and Mariia Kuklina

MӨР is a Mongolian word to describe any form of traces, be it animal trails, vehicle tracks, footprints of buildings on the ground, or carvings on rock surfaces. As such, it is ideal for telling stories about our (scholars from the USA, Russia, and Mongolia) expedition in 2022 to meet reindeer and cattle nomadic herders, Indigenous Dukha and Darkhad peoples respectively in Northern Mongolia. We aim to learn about their relations with their animals, informal roads, and the landscape within the ongoing research of Informal Roads. The album was created and designed for these communities to share impressions and findings of the expedition. For researchers, images serve as a tool for the documentation of observed scapes. A print of the mosaic of drone imagery of the Bayanzürkh village demonstrates the precarious position of the settlement on the confluence of two rivers in the area prone to floods. Lower by the river, viewers can see more traditional dwellings with gers that are easily moved. Upper by the river, the newer, more permanent structures risk being destroyed in case of hazards.

CITY-ON-LINE

by Aleksandra Ianchenko and Robert Orttung with participation of Johan Sandström

The idea of merging art and science is to convey a variety of knowledge and ways of making sense of the world, in this case, how cities in the Arctic work. For this exhibit, we have mixed spoken word, a video of life in a northern city, and a constantly evolving drawing. There is considerable research on the life of cities – how they bring people together and what those people create when they interact in large numbers. However, it is not always easy to convey these experiences and outputs with just words. Cities include a variety of buildings and infrastructure, places to live and work, and ways to get around. Combining pictures, video, and scholarly analysis gives a more complete picture of the benefits of a city than just one of these media. Some Western observers have claimed that cities are the greatest invention of humanity since they drive the creativity that propels science and technology forward. In the north, however, many view cities as an unwanted imposition that disrupts traditional relationships with the land. It is not clear if there is any way to reconcile these perspectives. Can cities exist in the north in a way that meets the needs and desires of the Indigenous rightsholders and the settler population, some of whom were born in these very cities? Is there a way to move forward while accounting for what happened in the past? That is a question we are hoping to address in our research.  

Arctic Palimpsest

by Aleksandra Ianchenko

Originally, a palimpsest was a piece of paper or parchment used multiple times for writing so that it bears traces of previously erased texts. Here, I use this word as a metaphor for the multi-layered cityscape of Luleå, the city in northern Sweden that serves as the capital of Norrbotten. Known for centuries as a site of iron ore extraction and steel production, Luleå has a large steel plant that is peacefully surrounded by wooden houses on the riverside. The city’s Europeanness is visible through the presence of the gothic cathedral and, what locals claim is the world’s first shopping mall. Contemporary data centers and hypermarkets neighbor discrete natural landscapes permeated by Saami spirits and deities. It is remarkable to see how these layers overlap and mix creating unique city atmospheres. In my book, I tried to express these layers in a visual story based on my short walk in Luleå on a spring day in 2022.

South of No North

by Max Sher, Kelsey Nyland, and Jacob Tafrate

The title South of No North is borrowed from Charles Bukowski’s attempt to describe aimless wanderings with cardinal directions, an experience shared by the geographers and the artist who put together this piece based on research in Arctic Sweden. It shows two perspectives of the Arctic cities, Luleå and Kiruna: one from the ground through photographs highlighting the ordinary built environment, and the other from the air through satellite images that capture electromagnetic ranges outside what is visible to the human eye. Through capturing the everyday, the photographs seen here challenge the prevailing, romanticized stereotype of the Swedish North as an idyllic untapped wilderness roamed by depoliticized reindeer and their Sami herders. By focusing on everyday spaces and ordinary landscapes, photography can provide an alternative view that allows those unfamiliar with the landscape to understand and question the social structures at play.

The traditional map offers geographical reference to the collection of photographs and outlines the extent of satellite images included in the display. Landsat satellite images are displayed using ratios of portions of the electromagnetic spectrum outside of the visible color spectrum. These remote sensing indices offer a surreal view of the ordinary by capturing landscape elements hidden from the naked eye. These images are built off the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the Ferrous Minerals Ratio (FM) which both use the shortwave infrared and infrared light reflectance of the earth’s surface to determine specific environmental characteristics.

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.

ALASKALAND

by Diana Khaziakhmetova and Olga Lo

“Alaskaland” is a project that explores the transformative power of Indigenous perspectives on the urban landscape of Fairbanks, Alaska. It addresses the historical dominance of Western urban planning and aesthetics while highlighting the contemporary efforts to reintegrate Indigenous knowledge, art, and traditions into the city’s fabric. The concept of “Urban Shell” is central to this exploration, signifying the resurgence of Indigenous cultural expressions, visible in the murals, the integration of Native art into urban designs, land acknowledgments, efforts towards language revitalization, and the embedding of native natural elements within urban environments. This initiative is deeply rooted in conversations with Indigenous communities and employs artificial intelligence to bring their views on public spaces to life. The project comprises two main elements: a subjective map “Alaskaland” that offers an Indigenous-centric view of Fairbanks, and an art flyer “Alaskaland: Indigenizing Arctic Open Public Spaces” that encourages the audience to engage with Indigenous narratives of open public spaces. 

The Other Side of the Arctic Story 

by Marya Rozanova-Smith 

Jokkmokk, a town in Swedish Lapland, showcases the Indigenization of urban landscapes that manifest the Sámi People’s cultural resilience and political empowerment. Using urban street art and industrial architectural design elements, Sámi artists created urban niches filled with Indigenous cosmologies mixed with explicitly political statements. Jokkmokk is also one of those places where you realize how important it is to learn from the past while trailblazing for a better future. The stories we heard there force us to confront the urgent need for more critical thinking on current EU green economy strategies to protect the environment of Sápmi lands. In this context, the town demonstrates how the language of art becomes a powerful tool for the storytelling of historical trauma, forging the paths to reconciliation, inspiring political action, and making people to reimagine the future of the Sámi People. 

Arctic Maga(Zine) Prototype

Zines, by their very nature, provide a fresh and personal perspective on any given subject. In this small-scale project, participants experimented with expressing their thoughts and ideas during field studies. The portable and compact format of zines offers an exciting way to delve into critical issues in real time. In today’s fast-paced world, where challenges can arise suddenly and require immediate attention, the mobile nature of zines has become a powerful tool. It enables participants to reflect on and respond to specific problems on the spot, creating a dynamic platform for dialogue and problem-solving.

A notable portion of the supplemental illustrations for the zines was produced with the aid of the artificial intelligence program called Midjourney. These illustrations were generated based on the text and ideas contributed by the participants. The project was coordinated by the artist Olga Lo.