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Treaty Space

Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity: Gákte-Quipo
Máret Ánne Sara and Cecilia Vicuña

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Treaty Space Gallery, 1107 Marginal Rd.

Gákte-Quipo is a textile installation consisting of Sámi clothing twisted and tied into a quipo form, made collaboratively by Máret Ánne Sara (Sámi, Norway) and Cecilia Vicuña (Chile). In its traditional form, the quipo is an ancient system of recording composed of strings and knots, historically used by cultures located in the South American Andes. Overtime, the understanding of quipos has been lost, and this work seeks to honour Indigenous Peoples whose cultures and art are often threatened.

Gákte-Quipo forms part of Sara’s Pile o’Sápmi, an activist and protest work that brought attention to her brother’s 2016 legal case against the Norwegian government’s forced slaughter policy of reindeer belonging to Sámi herders. It utilizes gáktis (type of traditional Sámi clothing) that were donated from across Sápmi territories in solidarity with the trial, the piece ties together Indigenous voices and the struggle from northern to southern hemispheres.

This work forms part of the exhibition Arctic/Amazon: Networks of Global Indigeneity, currently on view at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1723 Hollis St Halifax, until September 17, 2023.

Arctic/Amazon is initiated, organized, and circulated by The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and Anna Leonowens Gallery Systems—NSCAD Treaty Space Gallery in Halifax. The presentation of the exhibition was supported by Lead Donor, Hal Jackman Foundation; Major Donor, Goring Family Foundation; International Arts Partners: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Outset Contemporary Art Fund, and Nordic Bridges.