Exhibition – Mahjong Connections
When I moved to Sisimiut back in 2021, one of the first people I met was Judith – one of the few other expats in town and a keen Mahjong player. I’ve always loved Mahjong (my brother and I had a card-based version of it when we were kids) but have had limited opportunities to play it, so I relished the opportunity to join Judith’s Mahjong afternoons with unobstructed views of the ocean and passing whales (at least in Summer).
A custom-made Mahjong set
The first time I want around I instantly fell in love with her custom-made Mahjong set – handcrafted by Karen Aruba Art. What made this one particular special, was that it was Greenlandic themed:
- circles became berries
- bamboo became kayaks
- characters included the iconic heart-shaped mountain of Uummannaq on each tile
- dragons became northern lights
- winds became common birds
- and plants and seasons reflected what is actually found in Greenland.
I was so impressed, I immediately ordered my own set – though in hindsight, I should have changed some of the birds and plants to those that best reflected my own experience of Greenland (rather than Judith’s), and I would have included each of the iconic mountains of Greenland’s main towns on the character tiles, not just Uummannaq mountain.
The Mahjong Exhibition
Then in 2024, I was contacted by Karen (the creator of the set) and asked if I’d be interested in contributing to a collaborative photography exhibition featuring images of the custom tiles set within the context that inspired them. She was reaching out to several of her recent clients to contribute to the project with the plan to create “a meaningful exhibition of Mahjong being connected with different locations”.
The result was “Mahjong Connections – hand-carved culturescape from around the world” – which showed at the Artzyen Club in Hong Kong in October 2025.
It was an unique challenge finding (and positioning myself!) to take the images that I thought represented the inspiration behind the tiles in an interesting way.
This image was taken very close to my apartment. It features Niviarsiaq (Dwarf Fireweed) – Greenland’s national flower and the Mahjong tile that it inspired. Behind are the typical brightly coloured apartments that are found throughout Greenland.
Here you see one of the character tiles, with Sisimiut’s iconic mountain – Nasaasaaq – and Paaraasuk Bay in the background. Almost every town in Greenland has it’s iconic mountain.
Imagining an interesting kayak image was more challenging, especially since it’s not that common to pass by while locals are paddling their traditional qajaat (did you know the Greenlandic Inuit invented the kayak?). I thought this was an interesting angle with the racked kayaks – each opening is custom made to fit the person who owns it.
Berry tiles (crowberries, lingonberries, blueberries) embedded in a vibrant patch of crowberries. Crowberries are particularly prevalent in Greenland and every autumn you’ll find families (and I was there too) out collecting the not-so-sweet fruit. We usually used them to make jam, jus for reindeer dishes, or desserts.
And I had to wait for winter to arrive to take this image of the Northern Lights tiles and some of the season tiles! My original plan was to have the Northern Lights tiles illuminated under some actual aurorae, but I ran out of time to execute that idea before having to submit my images.
I really would have loved to have seen the whole exhibition and the full set of images from around the world. But, unfortunately, flight prices from Greenland were incredibly expensive and Hong Kong is not exactly close…
