Description
In Present Day, Jeremy Dennis stages a surreal, almost whimsical scene: a Native American figure stands at a distance, ladder in hand, eyeing a modern house with a comically narrow chimney — a nod to the holiday myth of Santa Claus. The visual pun raises a deceptively simple question: how does he fit? But beneath the humor lies a pointed metaphor. The work critiques how Indigenous people have come to be seen as out of place in their own lands, forced into roles that no longer make sense within the architecture — physical and cultural — of settler society.
By referencing Christmas, a time steeped in joy, family, and homecoming, Dennis draws a stark contrast between popular myth and historical reality. The Native figure, standing outside what should be his rightful home, evokes a quiet absurdity and dislocation. Like Santa, he’s imagined as a visitor, a benevolent outsider — but unlike the holiday figure, he isn’t welcomed. Present Day is a meditation on how belonging has been twisted by colonization, and how the fantasy of ownership in America often comes at the cost of forgetting who was already here.
