A new project for a new artist’s book.
I discovered the story of the human zoos by chance and then I decided to “make something” about this topic.
So I started my research and I found old photos and information about the journey from Labrador to Germany of eight individuals of an Inuit tribe in 1880. Abraham Ulrikab and his family, Terrianiak’s family and a young man called Tobias went to Europe to be shown in zoos around the continent. In the late nineteenth century the exhibition of ethnic groups became fashionable so people paid to see odd and foreign human beings and their strange lifestyles.
We don’t know much about many of the people who were displayed in these human zoos but we know many details of Abraham’s story thanks to his diary.
Below are some articles for you to examine in depth this sad and shameful page of history:
- https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/abraham-ulrikab
- https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/first-nations-inuit-metis/bringing-the-inuit-home
- https://www.canadashistoryarchive.ca/canadas-history/canadas-history-feb-mar-2016/flipbook/1/
- https://www.canadashistoryarchive.ca/canadas-history/canadas-history-feb-mar-2016/flipbook/36/
Work in progress matrices:
Printings:
After making the artist’s book it’s time to make a short film that can better explain the story I want to tell. I decided to make a stop-motion film and so I studied and prepared scenarios and characters.
Finally, I prepared the set for shooting the movie.
The movie is ready finally. Maybe it isn’t as perfect as I would have liked but I think it can tell Abraham’s journey well. Now this story is also a bit mine.
Thanks to Pietro Maiorca for the video making.
Music Take me home by Nukariik.