Sky Hopinka
Dislocation Blues
2016
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Sky Hopinka
Dislocation Blues
2016
Physical Qualities
HD video (color, sound), Duration: 16 minutes, 57 seconds
Credit Line
Art Fund established with exchange funds from gifts of Dr. and Mrs. Edgar F. Berman, Equitable Bank, N.A., Geoffrey Gates, Sandra O. Moose, National Endowment for the Arts, Lawrence Rubin, Philip M. Stern, and Alan J. Zakon
Object Number
2022.70
This film by Sky Hopinka shares reflections from the broad, unified moment of Indigenous resistance commonly referred to as Standing Rock. In 2016 and 2017, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, home to Lakota and Dakota nations, became a site of protest and opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a crude oil pipeline approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to run through sovereign Indigenous land in North Dakota. Indigenous activists and their allies obstructed construction for 10 months in objection to contamination of the land and water that oil spills would cause.
The video alternates between the personal accounts of two water protectors—protest participants—and scenes from the front lines and within the camp. Shaawan Francis Keahna (Ojibwe/Meskwaki) recounts his experiences entering, existing in, and leaving the camp as a two-spirit Native person. Terry Running Wild describes his experience of the camp and his hopes for what this gathering will become. Dislocation Blues reflects on a moment, on togetherness, and on the lasting change brought about by collective action.
Crosscurrents: Works from the Contemporary Collection
Contemporary Wing Rotations 2024
Contemporary Wing Rotations 2025
Artist
Sky Hopinka
1983–2000
Ho-Chunk Nation and Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, born Ferndale, WA 1984
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