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Mnemonics of Shape and Reason

Sky Hopinka

American, b.1984

Mnemonics of Shape and Reason, 2021

HD video, stereo, color

Sky Hopinka interweaves landscapes filmed during his travels with layers of audio, poetry, and music. In this enigmatic piece, the artist refuses the ordering structure of a linear narrative, instead structuring the work around the idea of a mnemonic, a device meant to trigger memory. He creates a soundscape where language, vision, and sonic forms interact to reflect on ideas of spirituality tied to the land and Ho-Chunk sacred stories. The artist describes the piece as a "poetic meandering around the histories imbued in these places but also mnemonics for other spaces and emotional registers that are difficult to describe but feel like they're present everywhere."

That’s a still from this video:

The beautiful background score is by Room Thirteen.