Karthik Pandian, Visiting Artist Lecture 2026

Interdisciplinary artist Karthik Pandian gives a lecture talking about his artistic practice at Skowhegan which spans–but is not limited to–installation, film, performance, drawing, collaboration, and writing. Pandian sees himself as a conductor of energy. This idea has guided his artistic practice. Pandian has always been drawn to materials that can transmit political, historical, and aesthetic energies. He explains how the multi-year projects he embarks on take different manifestations and then emerge in different forms. Pandian shares how he has always been fascinated with the direction of a group of people that bring complex histories, ideas, forms of embodiment, and textures. Pandian asks: how can he conduct that energy into something, and do it while also thinking about care as an everyday necessity? For him, care is something that is not just a fragment or a source of information, but also an energy force that can be prioritized to fight back against the mindless consumption of information. Pandian shares how accountability to himself and his collaborators in performance has taught him to not make art to please others. For Pandian, his work has his name on it not because of authorship but because of responsibility. This has allowed Pandian to create art that can reenchant and recover some of the deepest knowledge that the earth and spiritual realm holds, which ultimately requires a desire to surrender that knowledge. Pandian ends his lecture by hoping to express a deep capacity for kindness in his life and work as an artist, and for his desire to maintain belief in reimagination of the world.