Description
In Indian Brook, Jeremy Dennis stages a subtle yet pointed self-portrait beside a road sign bearing the name "Indian Brook" in Cold Spring, NY. At first glance, the image appears quiet — a solitary figure beside a placename — but its implications ripple outward. Referencing the phrase “speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Dennis invokes the long history of Native people being demonized in settler narratives, often cast as heathens or devil-worshippers for refusing Christianity. The calm presence of the artist beside the sign turns this invocation on its head: he has appeared, but not as the monster history feared — as a witness, a subject, and a survivor.
By inserting himself into a space marked only by a colonial name, Dennis exposes how place-naming operates as both erasure and haunting — where Indigenous presence is referenced, but never truly seen. In this quiet confrontation, Indian Brook forces the viewer to reckon with the absurdity and violence of a mythology that vilified Native spirituality to justify conquest. The image is at once a reclamation and a quiet joke, layered with irony: he was always here, not summoned, but deliberately returning to the places that still whisper his name.
Artwork Details
Title: Indian Brook
Year: 2025
Medium: Metal Print (Luster Finish)
Size: 20 x 24 inches
Edition: 2/10
