In the airy reception hall of the revamped Art Gallery of Hamilton last Thursday, artist Brendan Fernandes welcomed a considerable crowd to until we fearless, his latest exhibition. Decked out in a red blazer and cream bowtie, the young Canadian artist glided easily between fans and friends who came to celebrate the unveiling of his first solo show at the museum level.
But instead of admiring photographs or paintings, the teeming crowd huddled around plastic deer decoys wearing fabricated masks, or gazed at computer animations of animals killing other animals as they listened to sentimental love songs on headphones.
“I’m playing on the exotification of Africa. I’m always working with artifacts and cultural objects,” Fernandes explains of his multimedia showcase. “Much of my inspiration comes from my travels through South Africa and the Caribbean.”
Born in Kenya, Fernandes cites cultural perceptions of Africa and African Diaspora as the basis for much of his art. “The name [of the exhibition] itself means until we fear less, or until we are fearless,” he says, referring to Western stereotypes of his native continent.
until we fearless intertwines the familiar and the foreign, the natural and the synthetic. At the centre of the exhibition sits a shelter-like installation constructed out of wood, plastic and metal sheeting. The architectural installation is titled Voo Doo You Doo Speak, and inside, viewers are confronted with a dynamic multimedia environment.
On opening night, gallery-goers crowded into the shelter to hear Dadaist sound poems through headphones as animated masks flashed at them from screens at all corners of the installation. “Inside the shack there’s an environmental feeling – it’s almost like the masks are coming through the windows,” Fernandes points out. Jeremy Greenspan of the Hamilton-based electropop duo Junior Boys collaborated with Fernandes to compose a sound piece that also plays overhead in “the shack.”
Outside the installation, a herd of life-size plastic deer are covered in plastic African masks in a piece Fernandes fittingly titles Neo-Primitivism II. “Here, there are two negatives that become a positive in this hybrid creature,” he explains. “All the work has this hybrid quality.”
The hybrid motif harks back to Fernandes’ own past. Having grown up in Nairobi of Indian heritage and with a Portuguese last name, Fernandes immigrated to the GTA at the age of nine. After completing fine arts degrees at York and UWO, Fernandes traveled to Trinidad and Tobago and later to South Korea on artist residency programs. Now based in New York City, he also spends much of his time working in Toronto.
Reflecting on his globetrotting sensibility, Fernandes explains how “it’s allowed me to negotiate my own sense of identity. I’m always displacing myself and trying to find new senses of belonging and home.”
By exploring this fluid sense of identity through his art, Fernandes has clearly struck a chord with Canada’s multiculturalism. Last October, his work was showcased at Rideau Hall, the residence of Governor-General Michaëlle Jean, as part of the DIASPORArt exhibition. In April, Fernandes was long-listed for the Sobey Art Award, the country’s preeminent prize for young contemporary artists.
For now, Fernandes is on the move again with upcoming exhibitions in Calgary and Copenhagen. “In the beginning it’s really challenging, but I try to immerse myself and be a part of the culture as much as I can,” Fernandes says of his traveling. “A project may not directly come about at the end [of a trip], but afterwards I’m always thinking about other ways I could do things.” If until we fearless is any indication, it won’t be long before we see more good things from Brendan Fernandes.
Until We Fearless is on view at the Art Gallery of Hamilton until October 3.
