Gerard & Kelly, “On Modern Living”

Please join us for a presentation by Gerard & Kelly where they will discuss their collaborative practice and their ongoing project entitled “Modern Living”, which explores intimacy and domestic space within legacies of modernist architecture. Structured in chapters, each sited in a modernist home, the project is driven by the question, “what would a home have to look and feel like today to protect and produce intimacies and relations that don’t fit within dominant narratives of family, marriage, or domesticity?”

Gerard & Kelly will return the week of March 19 to lead a collaborative workshop for GSD students. More information about the workshop will be given during their presentation. See Silvia Benedito for more information about participating in the workshop. 

Modern Living is an ongoing series of performances and videos by Gerard & Kelly sited in iconic modernist homes around the world. Mining these “ruins” of modernism for their hidden choreographies and radical social experiments, the artists posit questions around memory, domesticity, and the architecture of intimacy.

Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly have collaborated since 2003. Their installations and performances use choreography, writing, video, and sculpture to address questions of sexuality, memory, and the formation of queer consciousness. Exhibitions and performances of their work have been presented by the Festival d’Automne (Paris), Chicago Architecture Biennial, Guggenheim Museum (New York), New Museum (New York), Made in LA Biennial at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), and The Kitchen (New York). Gerard & Kelly completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 2010, and received their MFAs from the UCLA Department of Art in 2013.

Gerard & Kelly have received numerous recognitions for their work, including grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, Art Matters, Graham Foundation, and the Juried Award from the New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessies. Their work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. 

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

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