<div><p>The artist’s meditative videos meld languages, lives, and lands</p></div>
<p><strong></strong></p>

Janelle Zara

How Sky Hopinka conjures his Indigenous ancestors

<p>Language – sung, spoken, and written – is a central element of Sky Hopinka’s experimental filmmaking practice, blurring distinctions between cinema and poetry. <em>Kicking the Clouds </em>(2021), a short film that the artist describes as ‘reflections on descendants and ancestors,’ features audio of his late grandmother learning a few words of Luiseño, the Indigenous Pechanga language that she was denied the opportunity to learn as a child in Southern California. This 50-year-old recording alternates with his mother’s own pained and nostalgic recollections of her mother, which score sweeping visual meditations on Hopinka’s native Washington State. Granular, lyrical 16 mm footage of cloudy shorelines and woodland roads unfolds, accompanied by a poem that appears as subtitles at the bottom of the screen: ‘We imagined the colors were their dreams churning in their memories.’</p>

<p>Born in Ferndale, Washington, Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of the Midwest, with maternal heritage in the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians of Southern California. For more than a decade, he’s explored the possibility of an Indigenous cinema, one unbound by conventions of linear narratives, Hollywood spectacle, or a reductive Western gaze.</p>

<p>‘I tell stories that are relevant to an Indigenous audience, unburdened by explanations to an audience unfamiliar with its context,’ he says. He embraces circular story structures, ambiguous translations, and hallucinatory special effects. The inclusion of abstracted audio and visual elements, he adds, leaves portions of his films open to interpretation, therefore opening points of access to a wider audience. ‘I don’t want to foreclose a non-Indigenous audience from seeing parts of themselves or their histories in the work.’</p>

<p>In Art Basel’s Statements sector in June, Hopinka debuts <em>Just a Soul Responding </em>(2023), a new four-channel film about the repatriation of bodies to Indigenous burial mounds. Voiceovers in both English and Ho-Chunk add rhythmic wordplay to layers of imagery and text, synthesizing a distinct cinematic language that reverberates with the traumas of colonization. ‘I’m hoping that there are conversations to be had around the topics in the film – around gathering and solitude, but also Indigeneity and colonization,’ he says. ‘The colonization of the Americas is the history of Europe, too.’</p>
<hr>
<p>Sky Hopinka is represented by <strong><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/28302/Broadway">Broadway</a></strong> (New York). His work will be on view in June at&nbsp;Art Basel in Basel’s Statements sector.</p>
<p>Janelle Zara is a freelance writer specializing in art and architecture. She is the author of <em>Becoming an Architect </em>(Simon & Schuster, 2019). She currently lives in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Published on April 24, 2023.</p>
<p>Caption for full-bleed image: Sky Hopinka, <em>Sunflower Siege Engine </em>(HD video, 16mm, stereo, color, 12’23’’) (film still), 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Broadway.</p>

title_style_2

<section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><div><div><section><main><div><div>
<p>The French artist creates armor-like sculptures inspired by 3D printing that defy the rules of clothing</p>

<p></p></div> </div><section></section></main></section></div></div></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section>
<section> <section></section></section>

Stories

On the rise: Jeanne Vicerial

<section></section>
<section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><p>At Art Basel Miami Beach 2021, curators Larry Ossei-Mensah, Chana Budgazad Sheldon and artists Maia Ruth Lee and Sky Hopinka, reflect on how to help create organizations where many voices can be heard<br></p>
<p><br></p></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section>
<section> <section><main><section></section></main></section></section>
<section></section>

Conversations

Seen and Heard: The Politics of Representation

<section></section>
<section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section> <section><main><div><div><section></section><section> <section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><section></section><section><section><main><div><div><section></section><section><div><div><section><main><div><div><div><p></p>
<p>With an installation on view at the 14th Gwangju Biennale and an exhibition at ICA Watershed opening in May 2023, the artist talks about creating space to heal through his art</p>
<p></p></div></div></div><section></section></main></section></div></div></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section></div> </div><section></section></main></section></section>
<section> <section><main><section></section></main></section></section>
<section></section>

For Guadalupe Maravilla, optimism is the first medicine

The artist’s meditative videos meld languages, lives, and lands

藝術家

BANNER

PARAG 1

Sunflower Siege Engine

PARAG 2

Fainting Spells

PARAG 3

Sky H

PARAG 5 + credits

H2 - Headline title

Information module

Connection Error

Adjust artwork hanging position based on the Y-Axis. The higher the number the higher the position. We recommend looking at the preview mode first to see how it looks at 0 value. This does not apply to artworks with solid color backgrounds.

Artwork Title

Type Title here

On view at the fair 

Enable if this artwork can be seen during the show

View on Wall Options

Select a thumbnail to preview and crop

Header image crops

Header Image

Header Theme

<p>Please upload an image that is at least 2000px in width or height in either a PNG or JPG format. Please ensure all images are in sRGB format to ensure proper color representation.&nbsp;</p>

Welcome,

Discover more related content below: