Sky Hopinka Artist talk - Andrew Diaz

How does Sky Hopinka use his medium of choice? 

Sky’s films would piece together video footage, audio recordings as well as archival material to investigate concepts of language, landscape, and identity, as well as the mythology and traditions of the Ho-Chunk Nation. Visual manipulations and overlays improve sky’s work’s dreamlike, sometimes hallucinatory effect, creating space for an audience’s own curiosity and wonder.

What inspired him to use video?

Sky became fascinated with the Chinuk Wawa language and the structure of it. It’s what became the foundation that got Sky to approach video and storytelling. led Sky to understand the rules and approaches to learning language and applying those same things to approaching video 

What material/medium/process do you use and how? 

the medium I use to draw is a digital tablet and the app I use to create my art is Procreate which includes many customs and tools that help me stylize my art style colors and effects. I would try to come up with fun ideas that resonates with me by sketching many poses and picking one I would find one that might be acceptable to work with.

What inspired you to make your work that way?

I was inspired by classic cartoon shows I grew up watching. I’ve also been a fan of animated shows and films that have a very unique stylized, sharp, soft or edgy art designs that feel simple but speaks so much at the same time. I became inspired to draw media characters of my own takes and constantly drawing them non stop until it eventually became my own art style.

1. “That's where the utility comes in and questioning what is the utility of myth? What's the utility of story? How can I use video to continue that? And also, what can I teach you? What can I teach you not only about moral values or the mores of the culture, but what are some phrases? What is the storytelling structure and how does it exist in cycles? How does that vary from tribe to tribe and how can video be a medium or conduit for that? There's no easy answer,”

I like this quote mostly because it speaks for every artist that there is no simple explanation to every decision of creating art. There is no wrong way to create your own version of storytelling or how’s put together or what medium it needs to presented in.

“I don't feel the burden to try and make things accessible to the widest audience that I can, because the widest audience is code for white American. But what does it mean to make work for a Native audience that's dealing with things that may not be what is ascribed to what we're allowed to deal with?”

Sky has a connection with his audience and how he approaches the themes of his native heritage especially with how he handles his art that appeals to his audience, importantly to his native audience.