POST 7 - HOW DO YOU MAKE IT? - DEE DIAZ

Notes:

• Similarities between language and film 
• both contain structural requirements that can be followed or broken with endless potential 
• Pieces together video footage, audio recordings, and archival material to investigate concepts of language, landscape, and identity 
• mythology and traditions of the Ho-Chunk Nation 
• dreamlike often hallucinatory effects 
• By learning Chinuk Wawa he soon began to pursue film seriously 
• the structure of grammar, language, and all the different rules or approaches to language he applied to video 
• being respectful of the history of indigenous people’s traditional beliefs and history and myths 
• more subjective than a continuation on the Ho-Chunk Mythology 
• How do we negotiate these technologies and how do we make them a part of our daily lives in a way that is meaningful to the past, but at the same time relevant for the future? 
• Their history treated as if lost and romanticized 
• intended audience 

Sky Hopinka uses his medium of choice by creating videos that are multiple layers. They come directly from his relationship with learning a native language called Chinuk Wawa. Similar to the way language has grammar, structure, and rules, so does art and it can be broken in that same way and played with. He is very deliberate with what he chooses to shoot and to portray. Upholding the indigenous people’s traditions and beliefs in a respectful way and not adding onto it in a historical context. He wants each video and audio to have a conversation with each other and communicate in a way that makes sense to himself and fellow indigenous people.

I use multiple mediums and processes in order to create my work. The general mediums that I use are photography and poetry. For my current work my focus is on displaying photos and collages through cyanotype and van dyke printmaking processes. I often take digital images, scans of objects, physical drawings/writings, and also film photos to create my work whether digitally or physically. I create my work in this way because for me, my fascination has always lied in the multiplicity of a singular object. I am always looking for a way to create multiple layers or images in a single piece. My inspiration is largely from other abstract artists who have developed their own language for their art. Such as Duane Michals, Joan Jonas, and Charles Gaines.