Brendan Fernandes, Still Release at Remai Modern (2024)

Still Release by artist Brendan Fernandes was performed at Remai Modern in conjunction with the exhibition Other Arrangements: Poetics of the Performance Score.

Still Release is a complex work that brings together several fascinating histories from modern aesthetics, dance and design to explore ideas related to the body and identity.

The sculptures are part of a larger series of work inspired by training devices used to contort a performer’s body into proper ballet positions, such as a perfectly formed arching foot or the splits.

The choreography that accompanies Still Release, draws on movements, positions and techniques of one of modern dance’s most influential artists, Martha Graham.

The rocking chair form is based on a performance prop from a Martha Graham production. Designed by Noguchi, the shape is based on a West African stool design. Reintroducing movement into his sculptural interpretation, the objects can now rock freely and the artist challenges dancers to achieve stillness and balance as they interact with the moving forms. For the artist, the strenuous labour required achieve stillness may suggest a form of political resistance.

As a former dancer with experience in ballet and modern dance, Fernandes understands the strict technique and discipline of the art form. He sees parallels in the way ballet puts demands on the body of the performer and similar ways the body is compelled to perform in public life. The artist states, “I am returning to my past life as a dancer. I aim to highlight the various meanings that the body can encapsulate: it is… a kind of object, endowed with cultural meaning, viewed by others and labored on by ourselves” and “I look at movement through queer and laboring bodies as they relate to the construction of gender roles and physicality.”

This work was performed at Remai Modern on February 29, 2024 by dancers Lindsay Harpham, Mitchell Larsen and Marcus Merasty with additional performances featuring Tatum Wildeman. Please visit remaimodern.org for information on upcoming performances.