Future Ancestors: George “Ofuskie” Alexander’s Simulacrum_recovered_ptng

George “Ofuskie” Alexander’s 2025 painting Simulacrum_recovered_ptng emerges from the artist’s ongoing exploration of identity, futurism, and the fluidity of cultural knowledge. Drawing from a lifetime shaped by artmaking, self-inquiry, and a strong sense of lineage, he often considers what it means to see beyond the political, racial, or technological landscapes and to cultivate a worldview rooted in shared connection. He note, “My art is an exploration of what it means to be human,” emphasizing that his creative practice helps him understand himself while encouraging others to consider their own roles within an interconnected world.

Simulacrum_recovered_ptng envisions a future ancestor navigating a world where ceremony and cybernetics coexist. In this work, Alexander imagines Indigenous knowledge systems continuing to future generations, inhabiting both physical and digital space. The central figure, a future ancestor, holds burning sage, purifying not only the material world but also cyberspace, asserting that sacred practices will persist even as the environments change.

Rather than framing technology as threat or salvation, Alexander positions it as a new force—much like fire once was—requiring protocols, mythologies, and ethical understandings to navigate with care. Portions of the image intentionally mimic screen errors or digital corruption, suggesting the unstable boundaries between the organic and the artificial. Behind the central figure, white egrets, symbolic of spiritual guidance, sweep across the composition like emissaries moving between worlds. They offer direction through both the clarity and distortion of the scene, reinforcing Alexander’s interest in how technologies may alter perception without severing connection to tradition.

In this painting, Alexander asks a vital question: When do tradition and technology meet? The work serves to open a dialog for viewers to imagine how future generations might navigate balance, responsibility, and belonging using ancestral teachings and new tools. Blending Indigenous values with future technology, Alexander offers a vision of continuity: a reminder that even in the midst of digital transformation, ceremony, guidance, and humanity endure.

Suzanne Newman Fricke, PhD Art History