Multidisciplinary artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas joins us for a screening of his recent video works, which typically appear within immersive installations speculating on our technologically mediated realities. The artist, who is based between Berlin and New York City, spent his early life in London after his family escaped ethnic oppression in Sri Lanka. Kulendran Thomas, who is based between Berlin and New York City, spent his early life in London after his family escaped ethnic oppression in Sri Lanka. The artist, who is of Tamil descent, often returns to this history to examine its aftermath, particularly through the Western world’s conceptualization of human rights, individual autonomy within the nation state, and socio-technological change in the region.
Kulendran Thomas’s videos combine archival footage, found online videos, and AI-generated deepfakes of such cultural figures as Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian to create critical, multifaceted narratives on these entangled topics.
The screening will include Being Human (2019)—also currently on view as an installation in the Museum’s second-floor collection galleries—which considers the rise of the Sri Lankan contemporary art market in the wake of the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983–2009). Kulendran Thomas will also present excerpts from The Finesse (2022), which was recently included in the New Museum’s exhibition New Humans: Memories from the Future. This project looks closely at the Tamil independence movement and the history leading up to the civil war in Sri Lanka. The artist will also present work-in-progress excerpts from an upcoming project.
The screening will be followed by a conversation between the artist and Stuart Comer, MoMA’s Lonti Ebers Chief Curator of Media and Performance.
Being Human. 2019. Sri Lanka. Directed by Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann. 24 min.
Excerpts from The Finesse. 2022. Sri Lanka/Germany. Directed by Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann.