Project: Seven Subjects
Funding based touring exhibition
The Misfit
Vase; Clear and colored glass, thread in stainless steel
Kaassassuk was an orphan and an outcast. He was adopted by the settlement’s oldest widow and bullied by the other kids for being poor and small due to malnutrition. When he went to the shared house for supper the other settlers would put two fingers in his nostril to pull him up on a higher plateau. His nostrils became bigger and bigger which didn’t help his situation.
One day he went out to find the creature who was half man and half dog. They became friends, and the creature helped Kaassassuk to become strong. So strong in fact, that he was able to kill three polar bears.
The end of the story goes two ways; one where Kaassassuk becomes presumptuous and challenges others in combat and loses, and the other where he ends up killing the settlement in revenge. This happens after two kids fill his cup with water, and spill.
There are many sayings when it comes to glass i.e. in Danish we have a saying “Det var dråben, der fik bægeret til at flyde over” (translation: “That was the last straw”)
Glass is fragile, can be easily broken, but is also agile. And the interpretation in this case has been more abstract in an attempt to create the feeling of not fitting in.
I think that many can relate to the feeling of being a misfit. Including some of the challenges that have been caused by the Danish colonization. A misfit in a foreign system or culture thus being from one ‘united’ nation. Or a misfit for being a mix of both.
Project supported by Sermeq Puljen, Louis Hansen Fonden and Statens Kunstfond.
