Artist Talks @ Bunnell

February 26, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: Nina Elder

Nina Elder, February 2021 artist in residence at Bunnell Street Arts Center, discusses her fascination with fraying materials, lines, tension, release and mending with artist Billy Joe Miller. Both will share images and discuss their work. Elder has been collecting and drawing frayed rope in Homer. Elder and Miller have made work out of ropes together in Gustavus, Alaska. Miller has made art out of rope waste at the Tides Institute in Maine. But more than the ropes themselves, Elder is fascinated by Miller's acumen with the cycle of life, as an artist and a shepherd for the dying. "As I was conceiving of It Will Not Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful, his perspective really influenced me. That there is something gorgeous after the breaking. He also does exceptional work in communities, and it is no coincidence that my art practice grew into public collaboration after traveling for a month with Billy Joe on the Alaska Ferry." more.

February 19, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: Holly Mititquq Nordlum

Artist Holly Mititquq Nordlum speaks about cultural resistance and revitalization through her present projects including public art, acknowledgment through art, film and traditional tattoos. more.

 

February 12, 2021- First Friday: Nina Elder (Artist In Residence)

With NPN’s support, Nina is developing It Will Not Be The Same, But It Might Be Beautiful. This multimedia project poetically explores how humans are implicated in the Anthropocene and are also tasked with moving towards a more holistic future. Through video installation and large-scale drawing, this investigation of change focuses on objects that have been exhausted by use and transformed by time. more.

February 12, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: Bivy, Contemporary Artspace and Bookstore

This conversation features owner/curator Simonetta Mignano of Bivy, Anchorage artspace and bookstore as she speaks with Hollis Mickey, Susan Share and Ben Huff about their art and the mission of this bookstore and home of The School of Nonfunctional Studies. more.

February 5, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: David Brame

During this residency David developed a mixed media show that further develops Dusty Funk and the lexicon of Afrofuturism. David says, "I maintain an active scholarly engagement. Dusty Funk is a series of mixed media Art Experiences that include 3 phases. Dusty Funk Psychedelic Afro Future Space Opera an evolving set of dynamic illustrations. Dusty Funk and the Wooly Whayl a tragic and surreal comic it follows the narrative path that a standard 5 act opera entails. That includes an overture, aria and three intermissions between the 2nd, 3rd and 4th acts. This makes for a total of 10 'chapters'. Dusty Funk is 400-460 pages and can be expanded into more volumes. Lastly Dusty Funk and The Cosmic Creation Comatorium a collection of installation and performance pieces." more.

January 29, 2021-Inspiration and Adaptation: Nancy Lord & Jennifer Norton

How do artists and writers share truthful stories about fictions staged in Alaska? American physician and explorer, Frederick Cook claimed to have discovered the North Pole in 1908. But who was “discovered" and what was suppressed in this story?   What are doctrines of discovery and what role do Alaska artists and writers and arts organizations today play in resisting colonialism through the works we create and promote?  How might the work of artists today in exposing doctrines of discovery play into rising social justice movement particularly in Alaska? more.

January 22, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: Shared Universe Book Club returns to discuss Dirigibles of Denali

Reimagining the Arctic and Alternative histories of Alaska. Nathan Shafer discusses Dirigibles of Denali, an augmented reality app/interactive print project that reimagines three domed cities that were planned, but never built in Alaska: Seward’s Success, Denali City and Arctic Town. more.

January 15, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: New Music with Wild Shore: Beringia!

What does it mean to create new music with respect for Indigenous cultures, stories and experiences? Found Sound Nation's Christopher Marianetti and Joe Bergen discuss their new project, Beringia, with Wild Shore New Music's Katie Cox and Angie Tanning. more.

January 8, 2021- Inspiration and Adaptation: Being Future Being with Emily Johnson

Emily Johnson, Yup''ik multi-disciplinary artist raised in Soldotna, now based in NYC, connects with her Alaska audience about her current multidisciplinary project, Being Future Being, and how it has shaped her work in systemic change, Creating New Futures land acknowledgment and social architecture. Link to video: https://youtu.be/_QLs1fGKF4o

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December 18, 2020- Inspiration and Adaptation: Christian Freet & Myesha Callahan Freet

Christian Freet and Myesha Callahan Freet are conceptual artists and  collaborators focused on self, personal and social contexts, and questions surrounding the nature of reality in photography, literature,  video, sculpture, and light. They live in Chugiak. more.