Coachella 2023: Visual artist Kumkum Fernando connects poetry to art in 'The Messengers'
When Sri Lankan visual artist Kumkum Fernando makes art, he’s guided by a feeling that he tries to convey through a small sentence and always presents his work with written words to tell a story. Each of his three 65 to 80-foot robot statues at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, known as "The Messengers," are accompanied with poems.
Fernando has made several of these robotic statues, which he describes as "idols," only on a smaller scale. He traveled with his parents during his childhood through India, visiting Hindu temples and in the Tibetan Buddhist city of Dharamshala, which is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in-exile. A mixture of the patterns and symbols on the walls of the shrines are featured on the robots.
"If you look at the base (of each statue), it's how an idol or a 'God' would be placed in Hinduism and Buddhism,. They have lairs where they place an idol and the reason I did that is because I wanted to show something special and all the designs from the temples," Fernando said.
The feelings are inspired by stories he's heard, people he's met or other experiences. "The Flying ilo" is named after his son, Kai-ilo. "The Empress of the Garden," which features floral patterns from Tibetan temples, represents a protector of forests and gardens. "Lotus One" is a tribute to one of his early art pieces.
"A lot of the feedback that I've gotten in the past is when they read the (story or poem), they see it in a very different light. Whenever I show my work, there's always a little write up, almost like an origin story," Fernando said.
The original designs for "The Messengers" were around 26 feet tall, but became taller. Fernando said the tallest statue he made in his career before this was 6 feet tall, so he wasn't used to presenting large-scale installations before this piece. But he's glad he scaled up.
"It feels like (the size) gives it that presence that I wanted with the poems. It's like creating these beings from another realm and emphasizes the presentation," Fernando said. "(The installation) has a lot of Southeast Asian iconography embedded in it, and it feels great that side of the world is represented at Coachella. I'm humbled and proud."
But what will happen to "The Messengers" after the festival?
"One of the issues is they weren't made to last so long and maybe for a month or so. Everyone wants to know what's going to happen to this, but it's just too big to store somewhere and it can't be outside," Fernando said.
Here are the poems and stories behind "The Messengers" by Kumkum Fernando.
The Flying ilo
This artwork is named after my son Kai-ilo.
Ilo lives thousands of miles away from me.
The first artwork I made for Kai- ilo was called ilo the dreamer
But it never had wings and ilo couldn’t fly.
This time it’s different.
I gave ilo a jet pack, faster than a billion comets.
The next time you see a shooting star,
A streak of light going across the sky.
That’s ilo
Coming to see me.
This is dedicated to all the missing parts of our hearts
that cannot be with us right in this moment.
May they all get jets packs powered by a billion comets
so they can fly to you from where ever they are,
Long live love.
This is the flying ilo
Lotus one
Where do lotus flowers come from?
27 million years ago
She left her home as it turned to dust
Carrying only one thing with her
Her favorite flower.
She brought it with her
a lotus flower
She told me it's a gift for us
But Who is she?
Where is she from?
Is she lotus one?
The empress of the garden
Ashes turned to flowers
Flowers turned to butterflies
Butterflies turned to stars and colors
Under her feet everything came to life.
In the center of the eternal black void
She stood there and looked at me
I was just a visitor
No words could describe her
There she was
The empress of the garden
Desert Sun reporter Brian Blueskye covers arts and entertainment. He can be reached at brian.blueskye@desertsun.com or on Twitter at @bblueskye.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella 2023: Kumkum Fernando connects poetry to art in festival work
