Brendan Fernandes on Choreography, Queer Identity, and Art by Snapchat

Brendan Fernandes (Nairobi, 1979) is a Canadian artist of Indian and Kenyan origin whose work explores the liminal space between choreography and visual arts, interrogating fixed identities and institutional roles. His 2016 piece 'Art by Snapchat,' produced with the Museum of Modern Art in New York for MoMA Pop Rally Ten, references the 1969 exhibition 'Art By Telephone' at MCA Chicago, where conceptual artists gave instructions via telephone. Fernandes replaces voice with Snapchat snaps—images, videos, and texts sent to performers' devices or projected—to direct tasks. In an interview with Maria Paola Zedda, Fernandes discusses choreography as a critical tool to challenge institutions, the fluidity of queer identity, and the use of social media as an extension of the body. He draws on historical references like Trisha Brown, Fluxus, and Judson Church. His work 'Master and forms II' critiques power dynamics in ballet through sadomasochistic and fetishistic lenses.