thisisopium

Sun and moon is a mural, painted on an abandoned ex- fuel tank base between Nuuk and Nuussuaq. It is based on an Inuit tale about the creation of sun and moon. The structure of the base was ideal to create something multi-dimensional that evolves around the walls of the construction creating a visual narrative that can be read from different angles. The story of the sun and the moon, responds to the Greenlandic environment regarding  the interchange of light and darkness through the year. The location of the piece is connected to this notion as well, since it is situated between the old and the new part of the town.The specific story is one of the few in the world that portray the sun as feminine and the moon as masculine, and it is actually a story of incest. According to a popular translation found in Peter Freuchen's “Book of the Eskimos”: Sun and Moon were sister and brother. They always took part in the copulation games in the young people's house. But one night, as Moon was trying to decide which girl he would try to find when the light was dimmed, his eyes fell upon his sister, and he thought she was the most beautiful of all. He noticed how her clothes were made, and when the lamp had been put out, he found her by feeling his way. He did this many times. At last, Sun became suspicious, and she took a little soot from the lamp upon her fingers. During the copulation she pressed her fingers against the forehead of the man who took her. And when the lamp was lit again, she saw her brother Moon with soot on his face. Sun became red and hot with shame. She took a whisk of moss from the heap by the lamp, dipped it in the blubber and lit it, and she ran out. Moon wanted to follow her, but he was in such a hurry that he didn't get his moss lit very well. "We must run far away and never see each other again," said Sun. And at the same moment they became spirits and were lifted up in the sky, where they continued their flight. But Sun has the stronger warmer light, because her whisk of moss burns clearly. Her brother Moon, who pursues her but never can catch up with her, has the weaker colder light.

Last August I was invited to participate in a month-long residency investigating the interaction between artists, designers and the local people and craftsmen in Nuuk, Greenland, organized by Hors Pistes. “Absence”, is a mural, i painted on the façade of Illorput, a social centre in Nuussuaq, Nuuk, Greenlanland. Illorput means “Our house” and the tree reflects the idea of a communal space-house that helps people grow by working with each other but provides some kind of shelter as well. There are no trees in Nuuk. The mural works as the only tree in the area and Illorput as the only social centre. Despite the absence of trees in Greenland, all the houses are built out of wood. The simple answer is that wood is imported (as well as fruits, vegetables and other necessities). Even when the Inuit did not have any kind of trade activity, lots of their tools as well as their kayaks were built out of wood. They built everything with found driftwood. An Inuit myth says that Sasuuma Arnaa, the goddess of the sea provided people with driftwood, fish etc that she left floating in the sea. Floating in the sea, working together to survive and build a new identity, with some imported elements as well.