‘Kahnop’: Latest work in UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection celebrates Kumeyaay stories and scholarly work

“It’s 800 feet of poetry,” Jessica Berlanga Taylor says of “Kahnop: To Tell a Story,” a new public artwork in UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection on campus.

“Kahnop,” an 800-foot-long pathway at the exit of the Blue Line trolley Central Campus station, features about 20,000 paver stones emblazoned with 1,300 lines of words. It includes lines from a story that visual artist Ann Hamilton asked scholars Alexandria Hunter and Eva Trujillo to write about Sinyaxau, who according to the Kumeyaay creation story was the first woman of the indigenous tribe.

“It’s a piece that invites you to read and to find words and lines,” said Berlanga Taylor, director of the Stuart Collection. “‘Kahnop’ is a Kumeyaay word. In English it means ‘to tell a story.’”

“Kahnop” — the 22nd piece in the Stuart Collection — will be celebrated from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 29, with a free event onsite including stone rubbings so visitors can take home a word from the walkway. In addition, a panel will explore the significance of the land and the original people of the area and more.

Hamilton decided to integrate the “feminist narrative” after learning that the university’s campus sits on Kumeyaay land, Berlanga Taylor said. The lines are meant to be read from east to west as one walks toward the ocean.

Artist Ann Hamilton wove words with ties to the Kumeyaay tribe and UCSD scholars into the 800-foot pathway that makes up “Kahnop.”

(Erik Jepsen / UC San Diego)

Hamilton also incorporated lines from authors and other scholars, many of whom have ties to UCSD.

The lines are pulled from a variety of subjects and contain themes of social justice, cultural mythology, activism, the environment and technological advancement, Berlanga Taylor said.

“It’s a concordance of documents that are weaved together,” she said. “The body of knowledge … embedded into these 1,300 lines is astounding.”

With more than 1 million people walking over the stones every year, the piece is “a field of finding,” she said, “meant as a site for exploration.”

“You can read line by line, or as you walk, your eye will catch different words. So it’s really up to you how you want to create your own narrative or your own story.”

Hamilton organized the piece using a “spine of words” that runs along the walkway and contains excerpts from works the artist found in UCSD’s Geisel Library, Berlanga Taylor said.

An app enables the reader to take a photo of a word, which will connect the reader to the library’s website, “where you can read more about [the work] the word comes from,” Berlanga Taylor said.

Quarra Stone Co. made the basalt pavers a tactile experience. “You feel the words as you walk,” Berlanga Taylor said.

One of the most important elements of “Kahnop,” she said, is that it’s public art.

“The piece is meant to be activated with people’s presence and people reading and walking … over it.” ◆