Rock Piece (Ahuriri Edition), Asinnajaq, video still, 4 minute digital video, 2015

Asinnajaq

Rock Piece (Ahuriri Edition) is a performance video influenced by the Fluxus movement of the 1960’s and 70’s. It was made in Aotearoa during a residency in Nūhaka, and the performance took place in Napier.

My Brother Naluturuk piled the stones on top of me, and Mattias Graham filmed it. The work is composed of a score and a recorded performance. The score goes as follows:

Rock Piece
Feel the weight of the world; free yourself.

Asinnajaq, 2015

As a score, it is an open invitation for anyone and everyone to interpret. Any way one thinks about the meaning of the words and actions is correct. Let me offer one way of thinking with the work.

In Rock Piece (Ahuriri Edition) the score is activated with my body and many grapefruit-sized rocks. The first part of the score is centered around naming and feeling burdens. The weight of the stones as they pile on your body are an opportunity. Make that which is intangible solid by the weight of the rocks. Breathe deeply in and out from under the weight of the rocks. Name the weight. Through breath the compression of your body is revealed. Let yourself feel it.

I refuse to let the weight keep me down. Pushing myself up from the stones slowly and carefully. As I rise from underneath the weight of the stones, the stones fall and slide away. It takes effort from the body and mind to get out from under the pressure of the stones, but as they fall, my body feels light and I am free.

However the stones slide back on top of me and I find myself buried again. I must accept that I’m in a cycle.

Rock Piece (Ahuriri Edition), Asinnajaq, video still, 4 minute digital video, 2015

Asinnajaq is the daughter of Carol Rowan and Jobie Weetaluktuk. She is from Inukjuak, Nunavik and lives in Tiohtià:ke. Asinnajaq’s work includes filmmaking, writing and curating. She co-created Tilliraniit, a three day festival celebrating Inuit art and artists. Asinnajaq wrote and directed Three Thousand (2017) a short sci-fi documentary, and co-curated Isuma’s exhibition in the ‘Canadian’ pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Asinnajaq’s work has been exhibited in art galleries and film festivals around the world and was 1 of 25 winners of the 2020 Sobey Award.

Kootenay Gallery of Art

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Oxygen Art Centre

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We acknowledge with gratitude that our galleries are located on the unceded traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx Sinixt Arrow Lakes and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples in Nelson and the unceded traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx Sinixt Arrow Lakes in Castlegar. We would like to thank the Sinixt, Yaqan Nukiy Ktunaxa, and the many diverse Indigenous and Métis people who live here now for the opportunity to live, work and host cultural experiences within this beautiful watershed.