Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment was organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, SUNY, and co-curated by Purchase College faculty members Kate Gilmore, a renowned performance artist, and Jonah Westerman, an art historian who specializes in performance art.
For the exhibition, Fernandes developed a dance piece in response to African art in the Neuberger collection. Working with vogue expert Jason Rodriguez and a cast of Purchase College students, the performance considers the transmission of cultural forms and knowledges across time and space and from body to body. This work, which changed and grew over the week, also considered questions of rest and repose. In addition to developing original choreography, related movement workshops were offered to museum visitors throughout the week.
Generous financial support for this exhibition has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, and the Purchase College Foundation. Additional support of the student participation in Hard Return has been provided by Ivan Bart & Grant Greenberg and Ava & Paul Zukowsky.