Dead Reckoning – Rowan Renee

A white, red haired woman stands infront of the propeller of a small plane.

A night image of pines and grasses lit by car headlights.

A woman kneels over an elk that is being flensed after a hunt.

A woman in camoflauge, holding a hunting rifle, sits on horseback.

A white woman peers out of the cockpit of a small plane as the sun casts a pink glow.

A white woman kneels with a knife in hand as she removes flesh from an elk skull, that she hunted.

A Black woman in camo holds a shotgun at a shooting range with pink skeets on the ground.

A frosty twilight image of a trail lit by car headlights.

A young white woman peers out of a cockpit window of a small plane with a redstripe.

A white woman with a small dog wraps herself with a caribou pelt, that she hunted.

Looking up at a blue sky with the silhouette of a small plane.

A gallery with wood floors, grey walls, and multiple framed images from Dead Reckoning.

Dead Reckoning

Anchorage Museum of Art, Anchorage, AK. April 30 – October 26, 2021.

Dead Reckoning is a series of 35 analog photographs created over two months in the Kodiak and Arctic regions of Alaska. As a city dweller and vegetarian for over half of my life, I was inexplicably drawn to Alaskan hunting culture, specifically the women who hunted large game to put food on the table, and who flew the planes that made the landscape accessible.

By focusing on women protagonists who routinely navigate gender stereotypes in these hyper-masculine fields, I found a framework to navigate deeper and more nuanced questions that challenged even my own long-held beliefs. In these images, hunting is a celebration of life and sustenance the land provides. Understanding our interdependence with nature comes with a deep responsibility to respect and care for this gift.

Although this series depicts settler women, the values of interconnectedness they expressed were influenced by indigenous knowledge, culture and spirituality. Many of them hunt legally on land that is managed by the Alaska’s Native Corporations, an economy that supports the self-sufficiency of multiple tribes. As hunting becomes increasingly contested in our polarized political climate, the restriction of indigenous hunting rights, practiced traditionally for millennia, has a devastating impact on Alaska’s tribal cultures, land and ecosystems.

Through these images, I hope share the values of interconnectedness and mutual respect I learned from Alaskan hunters for ways of living that are different than our own.

These photographs were created throughout the ancestral and unceded territory of the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska, including the traditional land of Dena’ina, Alutiiq, Nichiłt’ana and Ahtna lands. I personally owe deep gratitude to the Indigenous Peoples of Alaska for their stewardship of the land on which I worked, and the animals who gave us life. I recognize my place within the history of colonialism that has led to the occupation of this land and celebrate the continued contributions of Indigenous peoples.

[Watch Artist Talk on Dead Reckoning]

Exhibition History

Dead Reckoning, solo exhibition at Anchorage Museum of Art, Anchorage, AK. April 30 – October 26, 2021.