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Brendan Fernandes
(b. Nairobi, Kenya, 1979)
Performing Foe
2009
Video, colour, sound, 2 min 22 sec
Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, Pierre Karch and Mariel O’Neill-Karch, 2010
Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2010.2.2
Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
© Brendan Fernandes
00 : 01 : The title appears: “Performing Foe”
00:07 : A man seen from the back is directing a choir of young people of varied ethnic origins. Holding copies of a text, the group reads aloud with a pronounced accent.
00:07 : “Hi brrot heez fes Kloas tu myn [He brought his face close to mine]” [repeated]
00:47 : “Hee hoz noa tung [He has no tongue]” [repeated]
00:53 : “Eez that whaat? [Is that what?]” [repeated]
00:56 : “They cawt ot heez tawng [They cut out his tongue]” [repeated]
01:02 : “Oapin yoa mouth [Open your mouth]” [repeated]
01:08 : “Eez Frry de…? [He’s Friday…?]” [repeated]
01:11 : “Eez that whaat? [Is that what?]” [repeated]
01 : 15 : “… tut tell mi… […to tell me…]” [repeated]
01:18 : “…moa shuned F yde nirer… […motioned Friday nearer…]” [repeated]
01:21 : “Hee hoz noa tung [He has no tongue]” [repeated]
01:24 : “La la la la” [repeated]
01:27 : “Oapin yoa mouth [Open your mouth]” [repeated]
01:32 : “‘Du yu si?’ Hee sed [‘Do you see?’ He said]” [repeated]
01:35 : “…Tung… […Tongue…]” [repeated]
01:37 : “‘Hee hoz noa tung’ hee sed [‘He has no tongue’, he said]” [repeated]
01:39 : “… cawt ot heez tawng… […cut out his tongue…]”
01:41 : “…‘Tung’ hee sed… […‘Tongue’, he said…]” [repeated]
01:42 : “…Tung… […Tongue…]” [repeated]
01:44 : “Hee hoz noa tung [He has no tongue]” [repeated]
01:49 : “…Tung… […Tongue…]” [repeated]
01:53 : “They cawt ot heez tawng [They cut out his tongue]” [repeated]
02:03 : “‘Hee hoz noa tung’ hee sed [‘He has no tongue’, he said]” [repeated]
02:07 : “They cawt ot heez tawng [They cut out his tongue]” [repeated]
02:08 : “Ha Ha Ha Ha” [repeated]
02:12 : “Hee hoz noa tung [He has no tongue]” [repeated]
02:16 : “vHee hoz noa tung’ hee sed [‘He has no tongue’, he said]” [repeated]
02:31 : “…Tung… […Tongue…]” [repeated]
02:48 : The image cuts to black.
Brendan Fernandes
(b. Nairobi, Kenya, 1979)
Performing Foe
2009
Video, colour, sound, 2 min 22 sec
Purchased with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program, Pierre Karch and Mariel O’Neill-Karch, 2010
Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2010.2.2
Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
© Brendan Fernandes
In Performing Foe, Brendan Fernandes instructs a small group of students of diverse origins on how to speak with accents different from their own. In chorus, they are working to master pronunciation that reflects Fernandes’s mixed Indian-Portuguese-Kenyan-Canadian cultural background. This work is a sequel to the video Foe (2008), in which the artist receives similar elocution lessons. With Performing Foe, Fernandes complexifies his exploration of the role of language in the construction and transmission of identity. The choppy editing and repeated recitations accentuate the absurdity of the exercise by eliminating any claims to authenticity.
Brendan Fernandes was born in Kenya to a family originally from Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India. He immigrated to Canada as a child and grew up in the Toronto suburb of Newmarket. In his art, he expresses this migratory history by playing with the notions of identity and displacement, of people, objects and ideas. A number of his works address the colonial connotations of museums. Performing Foe illustrates the importance of language in the artist’s practice, which deals with both spoken and non-verbal forms of communication, like dance and Morse code.
ART GALLERY OF HAMILTON
123 King Street West
Hamilton (Ontario), L8P 4S8
905 527-6610
The video Foe shows Brendan Fernandes taking elocution lessons with an accent coach. She is teaching him to speak with the inflections of his multifaceted cultural background. The artist is parroting the coach’s pronunciation so as to become a more “authentic” version of himself, while at the same time demonstrating the futility of the exercise. He is reciting a passage from the novel Foe (1986), a postcolonial retelling of Robinson Crusoe by the South African writer J. M. Coetzee (b. 1940). The passage concerns the “savage” Friday, whose tongue has been cut out, leaving him unable to speak.
Brendan Fernandes
(b. Nairobi, Kenya, 1979)
Foe
2008
Video, colour, sound, 4 min 39 sec
Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, 013.09.02
Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
© Brendan Fernandes
To turn closed captions on or off, select the CC tab on the taskbar below the video
Brendan Fernandes
(b. Nairobi, Kenya, 1979)
Foe
2008
Video, colour, sound, 4 min 39 sec
Leonard & Bina Ellen Gallery, 013.09.02
Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery
© Brendan Fernandes
00:01 : The title appears: “Foe”
00:05 : A man is standing in front of a blackboard, a few sheets of paper in his hands. He is reading a text out loud with a heavy accent. The close-ups of his mouth allow us to see the effort he puts into his diction.
00:05 : “Eez Frry de en eem bas eel? [Is Friday an imbecile?]” [repeated]
00:10 : “Eez Frry de en eem bas eel een cep e bul uv spich? [Is Friday and imbecile incapable of speech?]”
00:13 : “Eez Frry de en eem bas eel een cep e bul uv spich? ‘Ay ask ed’ [Is Friday an imbecile incapable of speech? ‘I asked’]”
00:18 : “Eez that whaat u min tu tell mi? [Is that what you mean to tell me?]”.
00:20 : “Frry de [Friday] [repeated].”
00:25 : “Kwuso moa shuned F yde nirer [Cruso motioned Friday nearer].”
00:28 : “‘Oapin yoa mow,’ hee oald him, and oapend hiz oan [‘Open your mouth,’ he told him, and opened his own].”
00:31 : “FRy day Oapund hiz mOuuuth [Friday opened his mouth].”
00:33 : “‘Luk,’ sed KRoooa [‘Look,’ said Cruso].”
00:35 : “Ay Lukd, but saw nuthing in tha daRRk sayv tha glint uv teeth wayt az ayvary [I looked, but saw nothing in the dark save the glint of teeth white as ivory].”
00:41 : “DaRRk” [repeated]
00:44 : A voice coach who we cannot see intervenes. Voice over: “You, you head into that British thing and you don’t come back.”
00:47 : BRENDAN. – “Dark” [repeated]
00:48 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “Dark” [repeated]
00:49 : BRENDAN. – “Dark” [repeated]
00:52 : BRENDAN. – “Tha glint uv teeth wayt az ayvary [The glint of teeth white as ivory].”
00:55 : VOICE OVER. – “Hit that R harder. I-vo-ry”
00:57 : BRENDAN. – “I-vo-ry” [repeated]
00:58 : VOICE OVER. – “There you go.”
00:59 : BRENDAN. – “I-vo-ry” [repeated]
01:00 : BRENDAN. – “Teeth wayt az ayvary [Teeth white as ivory].” [repeated]
01:07 : BRENDAN. – “‘La-la-la-la,’ sed K uso, aend moashund F yde u ipee. ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha,’ sed F yde f um tha bek ur hiz throat [‘La-la-la-la,’ said Crusoe and motioned Friday to repeat. ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha,’ said Friday from the back of his throat]”
01:13 : VOICE OVER. – “That’s too even. You’re starting to slide again.”
01:16 : At one point, the man attempts a speech exercise by putting his fingers in his mouth and by stretching his cheeks. VOICE OVER. – “You’re sending air around the side of your jaw, and you understand it around the sides of your tongue, which is the distinction, do you see that.”
01:25 : VOICE OVER. – “Don’t send the air along your teeth. If you feel it on the inside of your teeth or along the gum line, you… you’re sending it the wrong way.”
01:34 : BRENDAN. – “‘La-la-la-la,’ sed Kruso, aend moashund F yde u ipee . ‘Ha-ha-ha-ha,’ sed F yde frum tha bak ur hiz throat. “Hee hez no ung,” sed Krusso [‘La-la-la-la,’ said Crusoe and motioned Friday to repeat. ‘Ha-ha-ha,’ said Friday from the back of his throat. He has no tongue,” said Crusoe].”
01:43 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “Crusoe”
01:46 : BRENDAN. – “Greepeeng Fry De by de heer, hi brrot heez fes Kloas tu myn [Gripping Friday by the hair, he brought hiz face close to mine].” [repeated]
01:49 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “hair”
01:50 : BRENDAN. – “Greepeeng Fry De by de heer, hi brrot heez fes Kloas tu myn [Gripping Friday by the hair, he brought hiz face close to mine].”
01:55 : VOICE OVER. – “he brought his face.” BRENDAN. – “He brought hiz face.”
02:01 : VOICE OVER. – “Nah. He… it’s… Remember to reverse. He brought his face.”
02:08 : BRENDAN. – “He brought hes face.”
02:10 : VOICE OVER. – “his face”
02:12 : BRENDAN. – “He brought his face close to mine.”
02:16 : VOICE OVER. – “There you go.”
02:17 : BRENDAN. – “He brought hiz face.”
02:18 : VOICE OVER. – “his face.”
02:19 : BRENDAN. – “He brought hiz face.”
02:22 : VOICE OVER. – “No. He… [laugh]. He brought his face. They’re flipped. So he… his is always his, and he is always he.”
02:34 : BRENDAN. – “He brought hiz face.”
02:36 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “his face.”
02:39 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “He brought his face.” [repeated]
02:58 : BRENDAN. – “Ca ca ca ca ca, ra ra ra ra ra.”
03:12 : VOICE OVER. – “He”
03:14 : BRENDAN. – “E”
03:15 : VOICE OVER. – “Not… no, E. Use an accent. He”
03:18 : BRENDAN. – “E”
03:20 : VOICE OVER. – “As if you’re saying his… don’t say the s”.
03:24 : VOICE OVER and BRENDAN (together). – “He” [repeated]
03:26 : VOICE OVER. – “Exactly. He”
03:27 : BRENDAN. – “E brought his…”
03:29 : VOICE OVER. – “As if he’s going”
03:31 : BRENDAN. – “He brought his…”
03:37 : VOICE OVER. – “face”. BRENDAN. – “face”
03:38 : VOICE OVER. – “So it’s not face… it’s face”
03:40 : BRENDAN. – “He brought his face.”
03:46 : VOICE OVER. – “That’s it.”
03:47 : BRENDAN. – “Owt owt, They cawt owt hiz tawng [Out, out, the cut out his tongue]” [repeated]
03:53 : BRENDAN. – “That is why he does not speak.”
03:56 : VOICE OVER. – “Yes”
03:57 : BRENDAN. – “That is why he does not speak.”
03:59 : VOICE OVER. – “Now it’s a little automatic so you wanna get it into a roll, ‘That is why he does not speak’ but land the consonants.”
04:04 : BRENDAN. – “That is why he does not speak.” [repeated]
04:09 : VOICE OVER. – “‘They cut’… and so notice that C is pretty prevalent… ‘They cut out his tongue’.”
04:14 : BRENDAN. – “That is why he does not speak, they cut out his tongue.”
04:19 : BRENDAN. – “Cut. Out. His. Tongue.” [repeated]
04:25 : BRENDAN. – “Cut. Out. His. Tongue. Cut. Out. His. Tongue. Cut. Out. His. Tongue. Cut out his tongue. Cutout histongue. Cutouthistongue. Cutouthistongue. They cut out his tongue.”
04:32 : The image cuts to black.