Inuk Silis Høegh, The Green Land, 2011, film installation, 34min. Photo courtesy of the artist

On February 1 from 3–4:30 pm, join us for an artist talk with Inuk Silis Høegh (Danish-Kalaallit) in the Anne and Loren Kieve Gallery. Høegh and MoCNA Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man will discuss Høegh’s latest works on display and how he often resamples common conceptions and materials in a tongue-in-cheek tone, commenting on feelings of alienation and powerlessness.

Watch artist talk on Vimeo.

Inuk Silis Høegh: Arctic Vertigo analyzes the Inuit artist’s experimental and interdisciplinary art practices. Høegh’s art contributes to the revival of Greenland’s spirit of independence from Danish colonialism and reflects the country’s new identity. An award-winning filmmaker, Høegh’s films challenge stereotypes about Inuit, chronicle Greenland’s way to self-government, and address environmental issues the country is facing.

MoCNA will debut his film installation The Green Land in the US, which is a land artwork and feature film about Greenland’s monumental nature at a time when it is undergoing drastic changes. The exhibition will also include Høegh’s documentary about the progressive Inuit rock band Sumé: The Sound of a Revolution (2014); a new edition of his installation Taanna (2013), which in its original version, put poems and prayers in bottles through a “melting machine” constructed from objects found on a beach in Greenland. His Audio Abstractions visualize the tranquil sounds of the Arctic in spectrograms accompanied by audio experiences. Inspired by traditional Greenlandic carved figures (“tupilak”), some of his KunukCo sculptures include elements of toy action figures, uniting the narratives of both worlds.

For more information, please contact IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) Chief Curator Manuela Well-Off-Man at manuela.well-off-man@iaia.edu.

About Inuk Silis Høegh

Based in Nuuk, Greenland, Inuk Silis Høegh (Danish-Kalaallit) was born 1972 in Qaqortoq, Greenland. He graduated from the Royal Danish Art Academy in 2010. His work has been shown in Greenland, Denmark, France, Iceland, Finland, Latvia and Germany and his short films and documentaries on TV and at film festivals all around the globe.

About Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man

Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man is an art historian and chief curator at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She previously served as curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and at the Montana Museum of Art and Culture. With more than 20 years of curatorial experience in museums and galleries, she has curated national and international contemporary Native American art exhibitions. Well-Off-Man received her Ph.D. in art history from the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, and her M.A. degree in art history, archaeology and pedagogy from the University of Cologne, Germany. She has authored numerous exhibition catalogue essays, magazine articles and blogs on American art.