Still Release by artist Brendan Fernandes was performed at Remai Modern in conjunction with the exhibition Other Arrangements: Poetics of the Performance Score, with subsequent performances during the show’s run.
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 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.
Designed by American artist and landscape architect, Isamu Noguchi, the shape draws inspiration from a West African stool design. The objects 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 to achieve stillness may suggest a form of political resistance.
As a former dancer with experience in ballet and modern dance, Brendan 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.
“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… I look at movement through queer and laboring bodies as they relate to the construction of gender roles and physicality.”
– Brendan Fernandes
This work was performed at the exhibition opening by dancers Lindsay Harpham, Mitchell Larsen and Marcus Merasty with additional performances featuring Tatum Wildeman. Please visit remaimodern.org for information on upcoming performances.




