Maintenance Works: Art, Labor, and Care will delve into caregiving, collective memory, and the role of art as an act of maintenance and connection. Together, Fernandes and Gochman will reflect on how performance, participation, and collaboration shape their practices—examining how undervalued gestures of care, cleaning, and tending become sites of dignity, connection, and transformation.

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The conversation will explore the politics of monuments and memory, the role of exchange and trust in collaborative processes, and the importance of embodied experience as a source of knowledge and care. Through examples ranging from choreographed gestures of maintenance to participatory monument-making, the artists will consider how art can honor unseen labor, reframe collective histories, and invite deeper engagement with cycles of transformation, migration, and belonging.

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This conversation will be moderated by independent curator Samara Furlong, founder of Buffalo Prescott, a Detroit based arts organization and residency.

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This program is presented by CXW, Buffalo Prescott, and Secrist | Beach.