Pia Arke and ‘Arctic Hysteria’: Visual Repatriation and the Problematics of a ‘Lost’ Artwork

his article examines Pia Arke’s artistic practice that engages with the phenomenon of ‘Arctic hysteria’, which apparently gripped large parts of the female indigenous population in the Arctic during the early contact era. By focusing on the ‘lost’ photomontage Arctic Hysteria IV (1997), I aim to sho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Kunst og Kultur
Main Author: Spreter, Stephanie von
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Universitetsforlaget 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10037/33642
https://doi.org/10.18261/kk.105.2.3
Description
Summary:his article examines Pia Arke’s artistic practice that engages with the phenomenon of ‘Arctic hysteria’, which apparently gripped large parts of the female indigenous population in the Arctic during the early contact era. By focusing on the ‘lost’ photomontage Arctic Hysteria IV (1997), I aim to show how Arke’s method of re-appropriating photographic material from colonial archives can be seen as an act of visual repatriation, of “working through” and reclaiming the repressed histories of indigenous Kalaallit women.