The Course of Liberty Exhibition Opening

About this event

Mark your calendars for our final exhibition opening of the year on Saturday, November 14th from 5-8pm for The Course of Liberty, a solo photography exhibition by Shinnecock artist Jeremy Dennis with an opening night performance from Isabella Fernanda. Both Jeremy and Isabella are working with local artists, so you may see familiar faces in the exhibition!

The Course of Liberty brings together photographs from Dennis’s ongoing series Rise to examine the contradictions between America’s promises of freedom and the historical and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Through staged, cinematic photography, Dennis revisits these histories from the present, using suspense, horror, and humor to challenge the idea that Indigenous people belong only to the past.

In Salem, Massachusetts, Dennis extends this inquiry to the colonial fears surrounding the witch trials and the broader ways Puritan settlers interpreted Indigenous spiritual traditions through accusations of witchcraft and devil worship. Such beliefs contributed to the portrayal of Native people and the woods as dangerous or threatening, reinforcing colonial justifications for conversion, exclusion, and violence. Working with local participants and Fernanda, Dennis brings these histories into a collaborative process of research, performance, and image-making.

From Airtight Garage