Project: Seven Subjects
Funding based touring exhibition
The Inuk aka. Paddle Chair
Chair; Smoked oak and oak
Paddle Chair is the first ‘subject’, and the starting point for the collection Seven Subjects - Myths and Legends from the Arctic.
It tells the story of the Greenlandic man (Inuk) and the contrast in life between now and then. In the past, Inuit had to travel out in their qajaq/kayak to hunt every day. These travels were dangerous and the hun- ters weren’t guaranteed any prey.
Along with the kayak, one of the most important tools for the Inuk was his paddle. The paddles were made of driftwood, and were very valuable, as there weren’t any trees growing in Greenland. The wooden paddles were strengthened with animal bone along the side and tip of the paddle. This detail and its form language was the inspiration for the Paddle Chair.
Paddle Chair is a comment on the stigma that still prevails abroad when it comes to Greenland. For example, it is still often believed that the Inuit still hunt in their kayak for a living.
Today it is not the kayak the Inuk sits in. It is a chair.
Project supported by Sermeq Puljen, Louis Hansen Fonden and Statens Kunstfond.
