Description
Monolith draws inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to imagine a moment of quiet defiance and collective power long denied to Indigenous men. In the photograph, a group of Native figures stands gathered around a dark, towering structure—a visual echo of Kubrick’s mysterious monolith—radiating both reverence and unease. The image references the 17th-century colonial laws on Long Island that forbade Indigenous men from assembling in groups, driven by settler paranoia that such gatherings were signs of rebellion. In this staged scene, Jeremy Dennis restores that impossible vision, allowing what history suppressed to reappear.
By merging science fiction and historical reality, Monolith becomes a meditation on fear, control, and the resilience of Indigenous community. The men’s gathering—once criminalized—feels both sacred and futuristic, suggesting that the very act of being together, of existing visibly, is a radical gesture. The black monolith itself stands as a symbol of forbidden knowledge and the unknown potential that colonialism sought to contain. Through this haunting reimagining, Dennis transforms an absence into presence, turning what was once prohibited into a scene of power, unity, and quiet resistance that transcends time.
