Kaila Bhullar (She/They) is an experimental filmmaker + multimedia artist based in the stolen traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) tribes.
Largely informed by digitally-based art forms, Bhullar uses art-making as an introspective tool that explores various internal dispositions concerning identity and perception, including contemplations around the existential and political implications of images. As a queer and biracial individual, they are interested in analyzing cultural binaries and norms, alongside the complexities that exist within the self, where they use moving images and sound as a means to express the abstractions and tensions within these themes. These inquiries often manifest as collages of varying forms, video or audiovisual works, and multimedia installations.
Bhullar’s practice is centered in collaboration, curiosity, and a yearning to create and contribute to experimental cultural spaces that amplify the voices of the underrepresented.
Recent exhibition history includes The James Black Gallery, 2023; XINEMA, 2023; Audain Gallery, 2023; Massy Arts Gallery, 2022; UNIT/PITT, 2022; and the Small File Media Festival, 2020. They have participated in residencies with Media Arts Committee and the James Black Gallery in 2023, and have upcoming residencies with The Contemporary Art Gallery and Lobe Studio in 2024. Bhullar is currently creating a moving image work for Gallery Gachet’s BIPOC New Media Screen, and holds a BFA from the School for the Contemporary Arts [SFU].
CURRENT & UPCOMING
F-O-R-M Festival Public Screens [A Sequence of Moving Pixels, 06:57]
Mount Pleasant Grunt Gallery Screen, Nov 4 - 18 2023
Mount Pleasant Grunt Gallery Screen, Nov 4 - 18 2023
CAG Prize Residency, The Contemporary Art Gallery, March 2024
Lobe Artist Residency + Presentation (Live Multimedia Installation) on June 15 + 16 2024 (tickets available soon), Lobe Studio
MAC Sound Artist in Residence, Media Arts Committee [sound art residency; Dream Safely], 2023
Listen to Get a Plant?!
SCREENINGS
Cosmic Queerities: Cinema Under the Stars Community Screening [Experiments in Super 8, 03:08], XINEMA + EPFC North, 2023
Small File Media Festival [The Great Emptiness in the Sky, 04:12], SFU, 2020
PAST
Dream Safely [exhibition], Audain Gallery, 2023
DissFunction of FUNKtion (POD Residency), The James Black Gallery [group residency + exhibition], 2023
Digital Interventions [Part 1: Heterotopias], Massy Arts Gallery [exhibition], 2022
Everyone is Happening Always, Audain Gallery [exhibition], 2022
Wrong Wave Festival: The Liquidation World Guide to Maximizing
Your Autonomy [festival], UNIT/PITT, 2022
Your Autonomy [festival], UNIT/PITT, 2022
ARTS 2022 / Category 5 Transformation, Surrey Art Gallery & Arts Council of Surrey [juried exhibition], 2022
LINKS / PUBLICATIONS / SELECTED PRESS
Unsent Letters: to Whom It May Concern (dir. Vanessa Lefan), What Lab, 2023; Closing Night Performance Documentation by Claine Lamb
SOFT TONGUES: A BIOACOUSTIC OPERA (Dir. Jami Reimer), Simon Fraser University, 2022 Contact at a Distance // Mediating Vessels at Massy Arts, REISSUE, 2022
Massy Interviews / The Materiality of the Digital, Massy Arts Society, 2022
SCA Berlin Field School, 2022
Insider Series: Karin Jones, Burrard Arts Foundation, 2021
The Peak, 2019-2021
KPU Fine Arts exchange program, 2017
Photography by Scarlett Shirazi
Photography by Hailey Vanderveer, Editing by Kaila Bhullar