Allison Akootchook Warden is an Iñupiaq interdisciplinary artist and a tribal member of the Native Village of Kaktovik, Alaska. Her poem, we acknowledge ourselves, was featured in the July/August 2022 Land Acknowledgements issue of Poetry Magazine. In 2022, she debuted taiguraq, a performance art piece at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art with Greenlandic Inuit collaborator Aqqalu Berthelsen.
While at MacDowell, she worked on Iluqaisa! a series of performance art videos created for museum installation. In Iluqaisa!, Warden will reenact traditional Iñupiaq spiritual technologies on video as she creates an immersive language nest within her studio at MacDowell. Iluqaisa! translates to 'all of you!' in Iñupiaq, and relates to larger themes that Warden has been investigating around 8 billion shamans becoming activated in the world. Warden also kicked off the 2024 season of MacDowell Downtown while in residence.
