siku/siku

above:  Warden as part of "Among All These Tundras", a touring exhibition throughout Canada.

This image is from the second part of the two part performance.  

In the first part, I am sitting on a 4 foot x 4 foot cube, as well as the second part, as seen above.  

The first character on the cube is one that is behaving as if she is on methamphetamines. She talks erratically on the cube, telling old mythological stories and confronting the audience while scratching her skin and exposing her belly.  It is disturbing and endearing and frightening and fascinating all at once.  She is trying to not scare the audience, and dives into dreamlike imagery alongside telling a mishmash between old old stories and phenomena found today, on the streets, looking for the next high.

There is a transition, where Warden gets off the cube and changes into a traditional outfit, and mounts the cube with Iñupiaq language books and a completely different persona. 

The second character is one that only speaks in the Iñupiaq language.  She teaches the audience through the language, and begins to write on the cube an old old story, until the entire cube is covered in the language.  Whilst she is writing, she is still teaching the audience Iñupiaq, completely in Iñupiaq. 

This piece debuted at the Arctic Arts Summit in Harstad, Norway in 2017. It later toured as part of the "AMONG ALL THESE TUNDRAS" exhibition.  There was an artifact of the performance left in the gallery with the transformed cube.  The video of both parts of the performance is on the wall by the finished cube.

Siku is one of our words for ice.  They call meth ice nowadays, they call it siku.  The idea is that siku/siku shows two different lives, separated by a thin layer of choice and circumstance.  One becomes a meth addict, one becomes a language advocate.

Details about the dates of this exhibit is located on my CV on the About page of this website. 
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