Artist Dominick Porras Reconstructs Classical Narratives of the Americas

Folger Artist Fellow Dominick Porras drew inspiration from the collection’s 16th-century books about the colonization of the Americas filled with etchings by Theodore de Bry, who famously never left Europe. Combining these classical images with the ethnographic writings of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and ideas from Indigenous Futurism, Porras used digital interventions to create a triptych he calls de Bry’s Slipsteam. The work interrogates the visual politics of early colonial representation and reasserts Indigenous ecological and cultural knowledge systems.

Porras’s work de Bry’s Slipstream is on view in the Rose Exhibition Hall from January 9 through February 15, 2026. It’s part of the Contemporary Art at the Folger series, four solo exhibitions featuring work by recent artist fellows. As a preview of his Gallery Talk on January 9 at 6:30pm, Porras shares his influences from the archives and Indigenous thought and what he hopes museum-goers will take from the exhibition.

Tell us about your work that the Folger is exhibiting.

I am excited to share with the community of DC my work titled de Bry’s Slipstream. Developing this triptych work contributes to the discussion around Indigenous Futurism. By combining 16th century classically etched illustrations of Indigenous representations with a new shapeshifter, a character refined through researching engagements, I am able to visually reconstruct classical narratives and interact with the illustrated subjects as an observer or sometimes disruptor.

de Bry’s Slipstream

Scholar Victoria De Swaan describes Slipstream as the overtly, disruptive and experimental counter-realist surface of the text allowing the writer to play with and undermine the conventions of Science Fiction. I have adopted Slipstream as an informative process in my multidisciplinary works, because it is essential when embarking into non-linear storytelling in relation to the past, present and future. Slipstream is able to embody the cosmovision that exists within Indigenous storytelling.

I would also like to mention the work of Helen Haig-Brown. Her 2009 film The Cave (?E?anx ) is how I have become familiar with this practice. I also would like to mention the anthologies created by Grace Dillon titled Walking in  Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction and Ursula Le Guin’s Space Crone. They have been my architects of the genre who I feel deserve to be acknowledged when speaking on the topic of Indigenous Futurism. These writers have paved the way for generations to continue this type of storytelling practice.

Developing Slipstream

My Slipstream process begins with researched illustrations which are photographed and tiled within Photoshop. I then match the illustration with a researcher, who in this case is the artist known as sahgothé victoria redsun, a First Nations collaborator who has helped me develop earlier iterations of this project. The project is able to present itself as a new media-based work.

What do you want audiences to take away from this exhibition?

I would like to believe this exhibition has the ability to help audiences further understand how these historic illustrations provided a false yet acceptable understanding of the dynamic development of relations between the people existing in the Americas and colonial forces from Europe. It is evident that these illustrations introduce the sense of othering an entire race of people through illustrating a recognizable set of demonized characteristics based on Christian ideology.

During the research phase, the images sourced from the image banks of Theodor de Bry (1528–98) would reveal that de Bry never set foot on the Americas, yet is responsible for hundreds of illustrations about journeys documenting significant events in the Americas. De Bry was able to fabricate and develop these works through his encounters with seasoned mariners looking to publish their journey in a similar fashion to how Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación, published in 1542, detailed his eight years traversing the interior of North America. Interestingly, all of this simultaneously occurred during Shakespearean time.

Which items in the collection inspired you and your work?

The most impressionable image from the de Bry’s image bank which I encountered would have to be the image, shown below, discovered during an investigation with a collection item referred to as Grands et Petit Voyages of De Bry. Upon my first interaction with this image it was both delightful and ominous to be honest.

It was delightful in recognizing certain cultural aspects to which this tribute and procession event is arranged. There are many expressive movements in dance and dialogue, both of which are wonderfully illustrated. I am also immediately drawn to the ceremonial aspects of the illustration which include several instruments, regalia, and the serpent shape procession.

What is ominous about this illustration is the tributed deity/entities that feed into several biblical/pagan references such as hybrid-beings with hooved feet and a five headed beastly figure demanding seasonal tribute. There are two other hybrid-beings who are complicit in this tribute and watch alongside ensuring the contract between man and beast remains as it is illustrated. This work clearly demonizes the people of the Americas, creating propaganda that forged a purpose for the coercion and indoctrination of Christian values amongst the people already living in the Americas.

How did your Folger fellowship support your work?

I was able to establish a wonderful and professional relationship with the Folger through accessing a handful of primary sources found in their amazing collections on the topic of early 15th- and 16th century exploration of the Americas. During my initial research project, I developed a visual ethnography of Texas Indians during Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca traversing of the interior of North America, particularly the Rio Grande Region.

In this research project, I experienced moments around cultural recovery, for example the processing of Yucca, Acorn, and Mesquite pods as a form of subsistence and other diet practices amongst the people living along the Rio Grande. The Mestizo-based spiritual practice known as Curanderismo may have also formulated with Nunez and his lost traveling party who played out charlatan roles acting as healers with Messiah-like complexes.

The fellowship also has been simply incredible with its ability to support my project-based work and validate my role as a researcher amongst other researchers who are also able to relate to the work that the Folger supports.

Anything else that you’d like Folger audiences to know?

I am excited to be back at the Folger once more. I feel each time that I return, I am able to become more familiar with DC and have grown to admire the city’s energy, its people, landscape, and waterscapes, too.

About the artist

Dominick Porras is an Indigenous multidisciplinary artist and academic instructor residing in California. His practice, which is grounded in lens-based media, archival investigation, and Chicano/Coahuiltecan heritage, foregrounds community-based methodologies and intertribal collaboration. Over the past two decades, Porras has been a key cultural worker and co-founder of Sol Collective, a Sacramento non-profit that merges arts, activism, and community education. His photographic and media work has played a central role in defining the organization’s visual language and public presence. Porras earned his MFA in Studio Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2023 and currently teaches courses in photography and New Media.

His tryptych, de Bry’s Slipstream, emerges from a larger ongoing project slated for exhibition in Fall 2026. This body of work engages with Theodor de Bry’s 16th-century engravings and the ethnographic writings of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. Through digital interventions, Porras interrogates the visual politics of early colonial representation and reasserts Indigenous ecological and cultural knowledge systems.