New Acquisition / Sky Hopinka: Sunflower Siege Engine

March 12–August 17, 2025

Sky Hopinka (b. 1984; lives and works in New York) is a multidisciplinary artist in video, photography, text, and installation. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and a descendant of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, his work navigates the poetics of place, memory, and Indigenous sovereignty.

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Sky Hopinka: Sunflower Siege Engine, 2022; courtesy of the artist, and Tanya Leighton, Berlin and Los Angeles.

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New Acquisition / Sky Hopinka: Sunflower Siege Engine

March 12–August 17, 2025

Hopinka’s lyrical video Sunflower Siege Engine (2022) intertwines archival footage of the 1969 Alcatraz occupation—led by Mohawk activist Richard Oakes (1942–1972)—with scenes from the Pacific redwoods and Cahokia Mounds, a precontact Indigenous urban center in present-day Illinois. The occupation of Alcatraz, a reclamation of Indigenous land, aimed to remind the world of Native histories.

Blurring boundaries between documentary and personal narrative, Hopinka includes footage of Oakes reading “Proclamation: To the Great White Father and All His People” on a laptop in his studio, merging the intimate with the historical. Hopinka’s voice intermingles with Oakes’s words, creating a dialogue across time as the film reenvisions the notorious prison as a symbol of resistance and liberation.

Through nonlinear storytelling, vivid cinematography, and a layered soundscape, the film connects the Bay Area’s past to ongoing Indigenous struggles for justice today. Offering a meditation on belonging and Indigenous resilience, Hopinka reminds us that the land bears witness to both wounds and wisdom.

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New Acquisition / Sky Hopinka: Sunflower Siege Engine is curated by Matthew Villar Miranda, BAMPFA Curatorial Associate.

All BAMPFA exhibitions are organized by staff across museum departments. For a complete list, visit bampfa.org/staff