Sky Hopinka
b. 1984, Ferndale, Washington
Lives in New York
Venue
Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans
900 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Monday, 11 AM – 5 PM
Tuesday, closed
Wednesday–Sunday, 11 AM–5PM
Neighborhood
Downtown/Central Business District (CBD)
About the project
The Island Weights, 2021
Two-channel color HD video, with sound, 10 min.
Courtesy the artist
Sky Hopinka’s two-channel film is a cycle centered on the narrative of the Island Weights—one of the Ho-Chunk creation stories about four individual water spirits sent to the cardinal points of the Earth to keep it from spinning out chaotically. Originating in what is now Wisconsin, the Ho-Chunk nation—which translates to “People of the Big Voice”—spans from Red Banks to Trempealeau and across the pines and the waterways from Minneapolis to Milwaukee. Broken into five parts—wijirawaséwe (the Island Weights), yoiréreginarere (the west one), rek’úhuhíra (the south one), hą́boguominàgara (the eastern one), siniwagúreginągere (the north one)—the film accompanies an individual narrating their journey along these boundaries of Ho-Chunk homelands in search of the worn and weary Weights. Images take viewers from the churning waters of the Mississippi River into serene forests, over still lakes, through vast shopping malls, along earthen effigy mounds, and the platformed remnants of Cahokian society. The narrator is attempting not simply to meet the Weights, but to restore the tired beings who have kept this world in place.
About the artist
Sky Hopinka is a multimedia artist whose preferred medium of video installation focuses on the historical narrative of native peoples and uses language as a tool to examine identity, culture, and the influence of colonialism particularly on the native populations of northern Wisconsin, Southern California, and the Pacific Northwest. Hopinka’s installations are organized in such a way that viewers have a sense of moving through locations in Hopinka’s footsteps, emphasizing the significance of land and landscape to history and one’s cultural identity. Hopinka’s work has been featured at the Whitney Biennial, New York (2017). He has screened films at the Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; New York Film Festival; Crossroads Film Festival, Jackson, Mississippi; and Filmfest DC, Washington, DC. Hopinka earned a BA from Portland State University, Oregon, and an MFA in film, video, animation, and new genres from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He currently teaches at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Sky Hopinka, The Island Weights, 2021. Two-channel color HD video, with sound, 10 minutes. Installation view: Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow, 2021–22. Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans. Courtesy Prospect New Orleans. Photo: Alex Marks