download special announcement about the show here.

Curator Statement from Gretchen Sagan

As an urban native living in Anchorage, I am curious and sometimes confused with how our Native values are reflected or applied in corporate and organizational settings. I suspected that I wasn’t alone in questioning what adaptations I have made in order to survive in today’s world. So I invited other Alaska Native artists to interpret the methods they have to employ in order to survive in modern times, hybridizing the age-old practices of our ancestors with new survival skills. Understanding that we have many voices and means of expression, I asked Joan Kane and Allison Warden to assist in cultivating the literary and performance component of the project. The artistic response and ensuing dialogue about our individual interpretations of subsistence – old and new – and its effect on our life, work and identity has been fascinating.

The theme: Subsistence in general is a means of surviving. Traditional subsistence remains an intrinsic part of life for many Alaska Native people and is an essential characteristic of our existence. In recent literal terms, “virtual” is defined as that which is ‘not real’ but displays the full qualities of the real. An example may be a reflection in a pool of water. The reflection is there, whether or not one can see it. It is not waiting for any kind of actualization. This definition allows one to understand that real effects may issue from a virtual object, so that our perception of it and our whole relation to it are fully real, even if it is not.

From these perceptions and real experiences, Virtual Subsistence provides a forum for contemporary Alaska Native artists, writers, and performers to articulate and exchange ideas about modern-day subsistence – the issues of remaining in existence, - and its role in the context of our lives, work and attitudes. The result is a multi-disciplinary exhibition that showcases personal “resource development” in all media.

Gretchen Sagan
Artist & Curator
Virtual Subsistence