Sky Hopinka

Sky Hopinka

41 (1984-01-01)
Ferndale, Washington, USA

Sky Hopinka is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in film, video, and new genres. He is learning his tribal heritage language, Hočak, and working on various video projects that stem from ideas of contemporary indigenous linguistic concepts, identity, and representational imagery.

Most Known for...

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Jáaji Approx. 2015 (6)

Against landscapes that the artist and his father traversed, audio of the father in the Ho-Chunk language is transcribed using the International Phonetic Alphabet, which tapers off, narrowing the distance between recorder and recordings, new and traditional, memory and song.
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Dislocation Blues 2017 (5.8)

Filmed during the 2016 Standing Rock protests in South Dakota, Sky Hopinka's Dislocation Blues offers a portrait of the movement and its water protectors, refuting grand narratives and myth-making in favour of individual testimonials.
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Fainting Spells 2018 (5.5)

Told through recollections of youth, learning, lore, and departure, this is an imagined myth for the Xąwįska, or the Indian Pipe Plant - used by the Ho-Chunk to revive those who have fainted.