Sikuvoq, sikuerpoq / When the ice holds, when it breaks

Presented as part of the multi-year project Carried by rivers, held by lands, this exhibition brings together collaborative works by Laakkuluk Williamson and Jamie Griffiths, alongside a selection of two-dimensional works by Inuit artists from Remai Modern’s collection.

Through performance, collaborative projects, writing and curatorial work, Laakkuluk Williamson situates transcustomary Inuit cultural practice within a highly personal and political context. Uaajeerneq—Greenlandic mask dancing—forms the core of her practice. It is a provocative and improvised performance practice that explores themes of sexuality, fear, humour and the limits of human knowledge.

The exhibition’s title, Sikuvoq, sikuerpoq / When the ice holds, when it breaks, references the cyclical formation and deformation of sea ice. From this shifting ground, edges and crossings emerge and recede—shorelines, passages between realms, and moments where land, ice, history, and perception refuse to settle into a singular reality.

At the centre of the exhibition are two collaborative works that unsettle in different but connected ways. White Liar and the Known Shore: Frobisher and the Queen confronts colonial histories of discovery, naming, and possession, placing viewers at the shoreline as a site where land is rendered “known” and power is asserted—asking how these histories persist and how viewers are implicated within them.

Silaup Putunga —meaning “the hole in the universe”—is a large-scale, double-sided video installation rooted in uaajeerneq that unsettles singular perception, holding multiple realms—ordinary and extraordinary—at once. Selected in dialogue with this work, drawings, prints, and paintings by Inuit artists depict scenes of hunting, doubling, and encounters with supernatural beings, positioning images themselves as thresholds or passageways between worlds.

Together, the works move from edge to immersion, narration to sensation, offering ways of seeing that hold multiple realities at once. Within the broader framework of Carried by rivers, held by lands, the exhibition affirms that knowledge is not static or contained, but carried through land, ice, bodies, images, and movement.