TOGETHER WE ARE · UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
Nathalie Pozzi
Together We Are is a public artwork by artist Brendan Fernandes, commissioned by The University at Buffalo, NY.
Nakworks's consulting focused on spatial perception at different distances and scales, considering the placement of the graphic elements, access and audience perspective.
Consulting and project management for public artwork
Together We Are • 2022
Artist
Brendan Fernandes
Commissioned by
The University at Buffalo · NY
Graphic Design
Platform
Mural
Chuck Tingley
Copyright
(c) Brendan Fernandes
“Together We Are” is an open phrase. It can mean family, community, friends and chosen Queer community, as well as landscapes, plants and nature. The garden, here referenced through black-and-white photographic imagery of plants found in New York state, is an ecosystem that works together to support itself and thrive.
As do the words, the garden further suggests a space for compilation. In combining these elements with forms inspired by the body-based sculptures of the late Japanese artist Isamu Noguchi, it all comes together to form rhythms and movements, much like letters forming into words, or stories beginning to be told—even becoming the abstract bodies of the people that will come in and out of the One World Cafe.
Brendan Fernandes
Nakworks's role included:
• Supporting the artist in selecting techniques and materials suitable for a permanent installation, and detailed planning throughout design development.
• Coordination and project management between the artist, the graphic design team, the mural artists team, and the resin panels fabricators. This included determining installation schedule and equipment, taking into account public accessibility to the cafeteria.
• With an awareness of the need for more sustainable practices, Nakworks strategized how to reduce material waste of the resin panels, using cut-outs to "extract" smaller and smaller pieces, rather than discarding them as waste material.
Materials
Acrylic paint (latex, flat) on drywall, with UV protective clear topcoat (water base, flat), resin panels and stainless steel hardware.
Brendan Fernandes is an interdisciplinary artist who examines issues of cultural displacement, migration, labor and queer subjectivity through installation, video, sculpture and dance.
Working at the intersection of dance and visual art, his pieces open up questions about hybridity of media and seek to problematize the notion of a fixed, essential or authentic identity.