Road to Meskwaki, 2022

Inkjet with hand-scratched text and UV laminate, framed
39 × 39 in.

In Road to Meskwaki, a highway stretches toward a setting sun, its horizon framed by fields and the silhouette of industry. The photograph grounds itself in the road leading to the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County, Iowa, yet expands into a personal terrain of memory and reflection. Scratched across the twilight sky, Sky Hopinka’s words trace gestures of the body and echoes of lineage: “…the way my hands look when they type these words, when they clap real loud, when they squeeze yours real tight…” Here, travel becomes inseparable from remembrance, where movement through place also carries the weight of continuity and kinship.

etched text
I think to myself as I think about body and face
and form and place, and, the way my hands look when they type these words, when they clap real loud,

when they squeeze yours real tight,
when they hold these books,
when they clutch that beer,
when they shake late at night after tossin and turnin for hours on end

tryin to dream those dreams I had when I was small when you were old and
and I saw them in your words
and heard your voice.