Today outside of Brugsen (the largest grocery store in town), I was delighted to find a Greenlandic woman selling papercutting silhouette art in the local sell/swap area. I took home the piece below for 50 Danish Kroner-- about 9 USD. It's a bit rough, but I like her style. She had a large variety of additional work in her backpack that she pulled out to show me after I made my purchase-- unfortunately, I forgot my camera today.
I'm now back in Nuuk after a final month of work in Afghanistan. It's good to be back, and in the last week I've been skiing--straight out the front door-- four times. Pretty amazing. More on that later. For now, a short post. Today outside of Brugsen (the largest grocery store in town), I was delighted to find a Greenlandic woman selling papercutting silhouette art in the local sell/swap area. I took home the piece below for 50 Danish Kroner-- about 9 USD. It's a bit rough, but I like her style. She had a large variety of additional work in her backpack that she pulled out to show me after I made my purchase-- unfortunately, I forgot my camera today. In other interesting news, both major grocery stores in downtown Nuuk were completely out of eggs today. A definite blow to my evening baking plans.
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Nuuk definitely has its share of art-- and that's not just in reference to the charming graffiti you see all over town (example at left seen outside the community hall where I went to a yoga class this morning.) Yes, beyond graffiti, Nuuk boasts some architectural gems and art exhibits that satisfy my cultural appetite (which, admittedly, has about a 15-minute attention span.) Most notable of these are found at the Katuaq Cultural Center. Katuaq is a beautiful building--slightly reminiscent, in my opinion, of University of Alaska's Museum of the North. Seems that high latitudes, northern lights, and wide open landscapes have inspired more than one architect in similar ways. Katuaq's cafe area. Katuaq shows movies and hosts performances in its main performance hall, but it also has a cafe with wonderfully lofted ceilings, loads of natural light, and a constantly changing gallery space that wraps from the cafe around the rest of the building. On weekdays, I often come here to observe the mother-barnevogn phenomenon (which you can read about here), revise my resume, and occasionally go through old files so as to appear to be employed. Saturdays and Sundays, the cafe offers a brunch (seen below) that Ken and I have so far resisted. Instead, we like to split a 35 DKK (7 USD) cafe au lait and watch other people eat brunch, then go home to eat some off-brand muesli. One day, one day, we may partake. This week's gallery exhibit at Katuaq was a kids-with-cameras deal featuring young photographers from Paamiut, a small town (population 1619) in southwest Greenland. I've attended exhibits of similar projects while working in Ethiopia and Pakistan, but this exhibit is by far the best I've ever seen. Better subject matter? More inspiring landscape? Nicer cameras? I'm not sure, but there were some great photos. Below, some of my favorites. |