Hghu Hghazdtl was a composite of site-specific installations in Anchorage, located on Dena’ina territory. The installations are intended to bring together divergent communities in relation to each other and the environment through narratives of sustainability and transformation. The project was curated by Tiffany-Shaw Collinge. Presented during Anchorage’s Design Week in 2019 and using design as a catalyst to engage a broader audience, this project brought activity and inquiry to the forefront through local design interventions that considered the area’s past, present and future. The public art installations were in place for free public viewing Oct. 3-25, 2019.

With Tidelands, at the Ship Creek Small Boat Launch, Anchorage designers Petra Sattler-Smith, Karen Larsen and Buck Walsky explored how nature meets the urban condition. The installation site was within a place where food security and industry intersect with the Port of Anchorage, civic culture, a boat launch that has been documented for over a century and the origins of the city. Sattler-Smith, Larsen and Walsky discussed tidal activity in this work, creating global touchpoints around how water impacts the environment along with our fragile existence within it individually and collectively.

Ułchena Huchłtyut (Where We Pulled up the Alutiiqs), at the Kincaid Park overpass highlighted Dena’ina history, specifically a battle that occurred between the Alutiiqs and the Dena’ina people. Employing an emblematic trestle bridge in the park, Taylor Keegan and Nicholas Horn-Rollins designed a reflective space that encouraged storytelling. By presenting oral storytelling, a well-regarded form of transferring knowledge from one generation to the next by Indigenous people, Keegan and Horn-Rollins make present events that occurred long before the founding of Anchorage as a city. After the visitors listened to an account of the battle they were encouraged to leave their own stories, which add to the many layers of history in this gathering place.

Wezup II, on the Anchorage Museum Lawn, was created by multidisciplinary visual artist Marek Ranis. Wezup is the name of a small village in northeastern Holland, which was shaped by glacial activities. This Alaska iteration was constructed with lumber affected by forest fires in Anchorage. The project alludes to the damage done by spruce beetle infestations and wildfires, both of which are increasing due to recent record-breaking temperatures and extended dry conditions.

Photo by Joshua Corbett

Think Next Over Now, at SEED Lab is a mural by Anchorage artist James Temte placed on the west side of the SEED Lab building at the corners of 6th Avenue and A Street. The image of a child hiking in the Alaska landscape chosen by Temte is sourced from Anchorage photographer Michael Conti. “Think Next Over Now" suggests ideas around what we need to leave for future generations where the hopes of the next generation relate to both people and landscape. Temte is the founder of the Alaska Mural Project, an effort he hopes can model what public art can do for a city.