Award-winning international artist and York alumnus Brendan Fernandes was back in town this weekend for Toronto’s annual all-night arts festival, Nuit Blanche. It would be hard to find a better venue to host his piece, given the emotional thematics and broad audiences Nuit Blanche brings.
“Night Shift,” part of the Romancing the Anthropocene exhibition, is inspired by a historical 13-hour ballet, which ran from dusk to dawn and celebrated the beginning of a new day while exploring notions of labour, time, and the endurance of the human body. His piece involves dancers performing the length of the evening until daybreak, with the start of a new dawn marked with a spectacular explosion of golden confetti.
Raised mostly in Canada, Fernandes graduated from York in 2002 with a BFA in visual arts.
Over the past decade, Fernandes has exhibited internationally and travelled extensively, including visits to Australia, Germany, and Korea. He has also participated in a number of international residency programs. In 2010, he was the recipient of a New Commissions Project through Art in General in New York and was the Ontario representative for the Sobey Art Award. He now divides his time between New York and Toronto.
“Toronto is more of a community – I know everyone here. New York has a much larger art scene. There are actually many different scenes. People are always coming and going so there’s a newness about it too,” Fernandes says.
But he’ll always be grateful to Canada for it’s financial support for emerging artists like himself, he says.
“As artists, [grants] have become the foundation of our careers. They allow us to make authentic art in a free space, that which will someday become art history.”
Fernandes’ work is almost always inspired by a personal narrative but his themes are universal. He states, “If I don’t have an audience, there’s nowhere for my work to resonate”.
His interest in our constant struggle to achieve an authentic identity can be seen when he discusses the majority of his work. “We’re all questioning who we are, but I’ve found that our identity isn’t concrete — it’s constantly in flux,” says Fernandes.
Following his Nuit Blanche marathon, Fernandes has begun to focus his attention on a solo dance piece, one more part of an ongoing, prolific repertoire. He welcomes the challenge, “I will actually dance in this piece. I haven’t danced in almost 15 years.”
To emerging artists, he offers this advice: “You have to be resilient and focused on your work. Challenge yourself, and don’t be afraid of what [your work] might or can’t be. […] A life in the arts is never going to be easy, but keep pushing. If you love it, it’s worth it.”
Sarah Peterson
Contributor
