Amit Kalra is a video and sculpture artist whose work examines how belief systems are sustained through repetition, gesture and mediated imagery. His videos use slowed movement, found footage, and layered sound to expose the mechanics of persuasion and performance. His sculptural works extend this inquiry through industrial remnants and ritual materials. Kalra holds a graduate degree from the Royal College of Art and teaches in the MFA Communications Design program at Pratt Institute. He has exhibited internationally, held residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Pratt and has been featured on NTS Radio.
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Highly Effective People, 2023, single-channel video, sound; 1 hour and 58 minutes.
Highly Effective People is a two-channel video work pairing conservative political commentator Glenn Beck with self-help author Stephen Covey. In one frame, Beck delivers a televised eulogy, recounting Covey’s repeated praise for his role in “making the country better.” Adjacent to this, Covey appears before a paying audience, outlining his strategy for influence as personal salvation. The juxtaposition flattens tribute into sales pitch, collapsing eulogy, branding, and national aspiration into a continuous performance of belief.