Photo of Joar’s skin by Simon Willerslev

I made that skin over there, it’s going to be what I bring to the touring exhibition we’re going on with our school. The skin is just about finished, all I need are some branches from nature to make a frame. I’ve made it look like a shaman drum. I started out with the fishes, real detailed, but then I realised I didn’t need details, just contours. There are different stories for each part of it. Here are the reindeers getting herded, they’re all running this way. This dog is helping the man, that’s why they’re close together. Whereas down here, this guy is hunting ptarmigan, wild grouse, so the dog is further away from him, the dog is going for the bird. Sure I’ve hunted. Never with a bow though.

Up here are the eagles, and down here is the residential area. In the summer I live in a tent with my family too. We have one made of peat, which it’s cooler during the summer, and then we have a regular one, just like the ones I’ve made here. I like living there, but I guess living in the city is more comfortable.

I’ve seen a lot of shaman drums, but when I’m doing this skin it never turns out the way I want it to. If I try to make something look ugly it ends up looking pretty, and if I try and make it look pretty, it ends up looking ugly. It’s always reverse.

If you’ll write my name in the magazine make sure to spell it p-i-t-t-s-a. The government wants us to spell it p-i-t-t-j-a, whenever there are papers coming from the IRS that’s how they’ve spelled it. Maybe they spell it like that because spelling it pittsa means it looks like it’s pronounced “pizza.” But that’s not correct. It’s not that I think Pittsa is better, it’s just that it’s the old way. I don’t know all that much about my family history, but my grandmother has started telling me things, like about the name for example.

My favourite food in school is tacos. My favourite food at home is probably tacos too. But not the clips, I want either the soft ones, or the tubs. They come in two different sizes.

JOAR PITTSA
Joar’s skin, and about 30-40 other works of art will be showing between March 16 and May 11 in the exhibition “My Home/Mu ruoktu/Muv viesso/Mov gåetie.” For more information, go to www.kulturkraft.info or www.internationella-barnkonstmuseet.org