Artists
Exhibition Dates
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Jeremy Dennis, Unrememberable Destination, from The Lazy series, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist.
Katherine Takpannie, Tulugaq #6 | ᑐᓗᒐᖅ | Raven, 2025. Courtesy of the Artist and Olga Korper Gallery.
Maureen Gruben, Aidainnaqduanni, Morning, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo: Kyra Kordoski.
Jeremy Dennis, Forms of Absence, from The Lazy series, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist.
Jeremy Dennis, Not One More Step (To Protect Shinnecock Land), from the Sacredness of Hills series, 2018-. Courtesy of the Artist.
Jeremy Dennis, Unrememberable Destination, from The Lazy series, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist.
Katherine Takpannie, Tulugaq #6 | ᑐᓗᒐᖅ | Raven, 2025. Courtesy of the Artist and Olga Korper Gallery.
Maureen Gruben, Aidainnaqduanni, Morning, 2020. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo: Kyra Kordoski.
Jeremy Dennis, Forms of Absence, from The Lazy series, 2019. Courtesy of the Artist.
Jeremy Dennis, Not One More Step (To Protect Shinnecock Land), from the Sacredness of Hills series, 2018-. Courtesy of the Artist.
I’m Moveable
A multi-site project on five billboards along East Hastings St, between Hawks Ave and Vernon Dr, Vancouver
Indigeneity is immovable – and yet we move; the word is a trickster. Artists Jeremy Dennis, Katherine Takpannie, and Maureen Gruben grapple with the attempted eradication of Indigeneity in their works, which have a presence that refutes dismissal.
Jeremy Dennis, an enrolled tribal member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation in Southampton, New York, constructs photographs of Indigeneity that directly confront colonial structures, in every sense of the word. This confrontation is essential in addressing the blatant disregard for Indigenous burial sites, stewarded land, and sacred spaces.
Katherine Takpannie, playing Raven in her piece Tulugaq | ᑐᓗᒐᖅ, carries forward the permanence of Indigeneity. Like Dennis, she is both the photographed and the photographer, continuing the lineage of correcting the representation of Indigenous peoples. Takpannie, an urban Inuk born in Montreal, situates herself in a contemporary nature, combining traditional storytelling with a cheeky regard to today.
Born and raised in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Inuvialuit artist Maureen Gruben uses the camera to capture contemporary sustainability. Survey tripods (salvaged from an abandoned 1980s oil camp) clothed in vintage polar bear rugs (gifted by a museum in Vancouver) is an image of coexistence. The title of the work, Aidainnaqduanni, means “we are finally home” in Inuvialuktun – a call to a culture that remains.
These artists conjure dialogues of inhabitance and habitance. Holding two realities in one hand is a trick that Dennis, Takpannie, and Gruben make look easy. They show that the immovable not only moves, but shakes.
The Hastings St Billboards are generously supported by the Audain Foundation, the City of Vancouver, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
