Giinaquq (Like A Face):
Sugpiaq Masks of the Kodiak Archipelago
On view Oct. 12, 2008 through Jan. 4, 2009
In the winter of 1872 a young French anthropologist traveled the Kodiak archipelago by skin boat, assembling one of the most extensive collections of Alutiiq ceremonial masks in the world. In May, masks from Alphonse Pinart’s collection returned to Alaska for the first time in 136 years to tell the Alutiiq story and inspire
Alaskans to explore the rich culture of Kodiak’s Native people.
“Giinaquq – Like A Face” will feature 34 wooden masks and a bird-shaped feast bowl collected from villages around the Kodiak archipelago. The exhibition, six years in planning, will highlight the cultural meaning of these historic carvings as well as their beauty. The objects will be mounted in individual display cases, and arranged around a full-sized cut-away model of a qasgiq – an Alutiiq ceremonial building.
“These masks have been viewed as art objects for many years, its time to illustrate their place in Alutiiq society,” said exhibition organizer and Alutiiq Museum Executive Director, Sven Haakanson Jr. “We want people to understand that they are
not just beautiful carvings, but part of an Alutiiq tradition of recording and sharing history. During festivals, our people used masks to tell stories, to pass information about events and beliefs to others. Each mask had its own song, created by the carver to help tell its story.” Songs associated with some of the masks, recorded by Pinart and recently retranslated by Alutiiq Elders working with Haakanson and University of Alaska linguist Jeff Leer, will accompany the exhibition’s displays.
Of special note are a series of small, intensely painted masks. Red, black, and white pigments, traditional Alutiiq colors, dramatically highlight the facial features of these masks. The exhibition will also display a large plank mask, a carving that is nearly three feet long.
Owned by the Château Musée, a municipal museum in northern France, the Pinart collection has not been extensively exhibited. Recent displays in France have begun to share the rare ethnographic objects, but have been beyond the reach of most
Alaskans. A collaboration between Kodiak’s Alutiiq Museum and France’s Château Musée brings a selection of Pinart’s mask collection to the United States for exhibition. The exhibition will provide Alaskans with access to a little known piece of their cultural history and reunite Alutiiq people with the magnificent work of their ancestors.
Sven Haakanson, Jr., Executive Director of the Alutiiq Museum and Anne- Claire Laronde, Curator of the Château Musée, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France developed the exhibition. It is accompanied by a 96 page photographic guide, Two Journeys: A Companion to the Giinaquq - Like A Face Exhibition produced by Koniag, Inc. and published by the Alutiiq Museum. They will be available for purchase in the Anchorage Museum Shop.
Ginaaq opened at the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak May 24 and remains on view through Sept. 26. The Anchorage Museum showing of Giinaquq- Like A Face will open with a special reception 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 12.
Giinaquq is sponsored in part by the following: Alutiiq Heritage Foundation, Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, Chateau Musee, First Alaskans Institute, Institute for Museum and Librry Services, Kodiak Area Native Association, Koniag Inc., Old Harbor Native Corporation, Afognak Native Corporation Conoco Phillips Alaska, Natives of Kodiak Inc., Rasmuson Foundation, Kodiak Island Housing Authority, Alaska State Museum, Koncor Forest Products, Natonal Museum of the American Indian.
