The Messengers

The three towering figures created by Kumkum Fernando appear at first as giant robots or action figures. But his “idols” — arranged in a row to create a colorful gathering place — pack volumes of meaning into their larger-than-life forms.

The Sri Lankan artist, who lives and works in Vietnam, draws inspiration from the vivid colors of South Asian art and architecture, particularly Tibetan and Hindu temples, as well as from folk tales filled with gods and demons that resonate from his youth.

Fernando began his artistic practice by collecting objects, patterns, and items containing different iconography. It has since blossomed into a bold, ongoing reimagination of these found materials as contemporary art objects — impeccably composed “idols,” each paired with a poetic storytelling component written by the artist himself.

“Whenever I travel, I collect and document,” he says. “I have a library that I go through at different points in time. When I put them together, I often see unexpected things. I made a series of work completely out of window grills, another series from patterns from Persian rugs, and another from temple patterns. One day, I was arranging objects, and they appeared to form a figure. Then I thought I should make figures with these patterns.”

The figures he has created in the studio for almost a decade are roughly 30 to 40 inches tall. The tallest was 6 feet — until Coachella. 

The three monolithic figures at the festival soar to between 65 and 80 feet — roughly seven stories high. Each figure stands on a plinth that has a base of steps that welcome visitors to gather and sit around the idols, which like the studio-scale version are each accompanied by a poem written by Fernando. At night, spotlights illuminate the figures. 

“People refer to my artworks as robots because they have a very robotic form,” Fernando says. “To be fair, at first, most of them were meant to be robots from other dimensions, but now it’s more of a story to me. Each figure means something a bit more. I refer to them as ‘idols’ because they represent something that is important to me.”

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