My coup de cœur at A&O Shearman in 2024 is a 15-minute video work by Sky Hopinka. Hopinka is an American visual artist and filmmaker who is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation and a descendant of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. The Indigenous perspective on the world and on art has become increasingly relevant in recent years, which is why many artists are raising awareness of epistemicide, the erasure of Indigenous knowledge. This knowledge is deeply rooted in various ontological views that call for the reconstruction of relationships with other living beings on earth. Its proponents advocate the revolutionary ecological concept that ‘the relationship between living beings and their environment must be understood’ in order to save the world from impending catastrophes. Hopinka tries to preserve his culture by describing and depicting various aspects of it, from language to nature and beyond. Kicking the Clouds is a reflection on descendants and ancestors inspired by a 50-year-old audio recording of his grandmother learning the Pechanga language from her mother.