qiaqsutuq

In Inuktitut, qiaqsutuq is the sound of the whistling wind and the sound of crying. In this collaborative multimedia installation created by five artists from across Inuit Nunaat (from their Inuit homelands in Alaska, Canada and Greenland) qiaqsutuq is critically imagined as a lament for nuna, tariuq, and sila, a chorus of its Arctic inhabitants from the land, sea and sky. As glaciers melt, permafrost warms, floods abound and smoke billows north from forest fires, weather becomes unpredictable, and thus dangerous, in the Arctic. Featuring the distinct perspectives on the impacts of climate change by Iguttaq (Bee Woman), Tuktu (Caribou), Nanuq (Polar Bear), Tulugak (Raven) and Natchik (Seal), these harbingers warn of the fast approaching consequences of our collective inaction on the precious life throughout Inuit Nunaat.

Created at NSCADU’s CIMADE Lab and produced by Inuit Futures and the Inuit Art Foundation, this artwork is the result of an artist incubator that took place in the summer of 2023 in Kjipuktuk/ Halifax.

Artists

Jamesie Fournier (Nunavummiut / Yellowknife )

Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich (Koyukon Denaa and Iñupiaq / Anchorage)

Coco Lynge (Kalaaleq Greenlandic/ Denmark)

Malayah Maloney (Nunavummiut/ Vancouver)

Taqralik Partridge, (Nunavimmiut / Ottawa)

Curated by: Heather Igloliorte (Nunatsiavummiut), Alysa Procida, and Carla Taunton

Technical and coordination assistance by: Aghalingiak (Nunavummiut), Matthew Brulotte, Annik Gaudet, Yi Fan Liu, Danielle Aimée Miles, Nathan Ryan, Dominic Thibault, Nils Ailo Utsi