The Left Space (2020–ongoing) is a performance by Canadian artist Brendan Fernandes that will be presented simultaneously at the PHI Foundation and online as part of the Nuit blanche à Montréal’s twentieth edition. This marks the first time that The Left Space is performed in front of a physical audience.
Developed and choreographed for webcam and the grid formation of Zoom, The Left Space includes custom backdrops by graphic designer Jerome Harris, in front of which multiple choreographed sequences are performed by a group of dancers. Reaching out and signaling to one another through choreography, and engaging with protest slogans that are incorporated into each other’s changing backgrounds, the performers and audience question the potential of online platforms to re-create the social solidarity experienced at physical gatherings.
The custom backdrops use historically significant patterns to tell stories of power, camouflage, and resistance. Evoking a sense of urgency and emergency, “dazzle” patterns, which were painted on warships to intercept their target, are coupled with purple and magenta plaid, which at once symbolizes British colonial rule in Kenya, a warning to predators in the wild, and the flashing of police lights.
The Left Space was originally conceived as a commission for Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario, and premiered online in 2020. The video documentation of the performance will be part of the PHI Foundation’s next exhibition, Terms of Use, which opens to the public March 9, 2023.
Dancers (choreography in collaboration with Hit & Run Dance Productions) Justin de Luna Jennifer Nichols Sophie Qin Kunal Ranchod Anisa Tejpar
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