Lore - Sky Hopinka
This is a certain body 2019 © Sky Hopinka
There was a time, long before televisions, phones, and technology became a major part of our daily lives, when people would sit around a fire and tell stories that consisted of things from the past, activities in the present, and possibilities foreseen for the future. The stories would be passed down from prior generations, some fact, some fiction, and some steeped in lore.
Indigenous American artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka has been making waves in 2020. In the midst of what seems to be the neverending COVID-19 pandemic, he has brought to the art world a truly unique body of work that takes viewers and listeners on a journey of adventure and introspection.
This is where we left off 2019 © Sky Hopinka
Hopinka was born in 1984 in Ferndale, Washington to parents who shared different tribal connections but were both performers. He is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and descended from the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. His work is heavily influenced by his Native American roots, but rejects the idea that history is confined to the past.
Hopinka’s latest body of work, aptly-titled Lore, is a looped ten-minute film and a suite of photographs all taken within the last year. Hopinka’s mode of sharing his narrative is very unique, combining text and poetry (written, spoken, and sung) with images, the sixteen still-life transparencies of which come first. These are photographs capturing other photographs, still-life shots of color transparencies, and a variety of people and landscapes (men carrying a canoe, men carrying what could be weapons). Some are difficult to read and each photograph has a poignant one-line inscription: “These are the summer sleepers.”
The transparencies become a building block for lore; they can be seen being placed by the artist on a light table and rearranged, layered, and manipulated, while in voice-over he reads a compelling text that echoes tales of family, Indigenous myths, and what alludes to the ending of a relationship.
The poem was written by Hopinka, and can be found in a slender new volume of Mr. Hopinka’s writing titled Perfidia.
Hopinka’s work transports us to a time when narratives would pique the curiosity and take us to a world where the imagination roamed free, where the possibilities were endless, a time when the present, past, and future were stories waiting to be told by those like himself, who possessed the talent to captivate those who dared to see and listen.
To view more of Sky Hopinka’s work click here.
